Kindred
by Hangerlane
Summary: Heather only came over to the states to get away. Now in the midst of surviving a zombie apocalypse she meets someone who could well be the death of her. This story follows Merle DIxon's own timeline while not with the group. VERY VERY eventual meet up with group.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Heather methodically checked a full perimeter of the small lake she'd found before putting down her gear ready to clean herself. She'd seen nothing except a couple of squirrels scurrying out of her sightline. Taking off her now getting worryingly light backpack she stretched herself out for what felt like the first time in days. Surviving on your own wasn't easy, she was learning.

Taking the knife from her makeshift sheaf she placed it carefully on the top of her backpack, removing the bow from where it now felt so natural on her back she tucked it through the straps of the backpack as well . Still feeling like she was too out in the open Heather paused before she started to remove her filthy clothing. If anyone was watching her she'd be none the wiser, she'd chosen this place after all because it felt secluded. After scouting her sightline she decided against the removal of her clothing, realising they could do with a wash as well.

Sitting down to remove her boots, she contemplated her chances of escape if one of the...undead were to invade her while she washed. Finally tugging the last lace from its eyelet she decided it was worth the risk. Grabbing the knife out of the duct tape sheaf she had made she headed to the water excited about her first wash since everything had turned.

Putting a toe slowly in the water to test it Heather realised that the water was pleasingly warm, it would have to be in this weather. More quickly now she pushed further into the lake, covering herself in the murky water felt amazing. Taking a quick look around first, she submerged her head and undid the messy braid her hair was currently in. This could be the best chance she could have for a while to get as clean as possible. Running her fingers through her long blonde hair she thought about cutting it all off. It sure would be easier but Heather didn't think she had it in her to do it. She scoffed at herself. Just two days ago she'd stabbed three of the 'formally alive' (one of the less harsh terms she'd come across) in the heads and she couldn't even face a little hair cut. One thing she would have to do was find some more clothing, food and water...her small supply had dwindled quickly. She removed her flannel shirt and scrubbed it as best she could to get the dirt out. Admiring her work she quickly worked on the rest of her clothing ensuring she got them and herself as clean as possible before leaving the lake dressed just in her now filthy underwear. She hung the articles of clothing on a nearby branch knowing that the sunshine would have them dry in no time.

Carefully laying the knife back on her pack she tugged on the only spare t-shirt she had left. Heather started to check the supplies she had, her outlook getting worse and worse while she did so. From how quickly she'd be eating and drinking what she had was only going to last her a few more days, a week if she really cut back. She thought back to when she had fled camp and scolded herself for not grabbing more. Sitting down in the grass Heather carefully re-packed all her belongings, knowing how crucial it was to have full access to the more necessary things in her pack. Relaxing only slightly she checked the cut on her leg, she got it when fleeing through the woods from a group of about five undead she was sure she couldn't tackle alone.

The cut wasn't deep, Heather sighed as she reached into the front zipper of her backpack and pulled out some antiseptic cream, this had turned out to be a god send and one of her most used items in the last

few months. Smearing it onto the cut she felt the sting as it got to work. Putting the cream carefully back into its place she stretched out on the bank waiting for her clothes to properly dry before she put them back on.

An hour had passed and Heather could feel herself being dragged into a heady sleep, knowing that could possibly be the worse decision she could make Heather pulled herself to a standing position and made her way over to her now dry clothes. Pulling on her not clean but certainly better than before jeans she heard a snap of twigs to her right. Heather carefully and quietly turned to inspect the location her brain said the noise had come from. Seeing nothing she grabbed the rest of her clothes and made her way over to the pack, chiding herself for leaving it and all of its contents there. Heather pulled on her boots not bothering to tie them all the way to the top but doing a rough but tight knot around her ankles so they wouldn't fall off. Another noise cracked through the silence as she was sliding her bow on to her back read for flight or fight depending on what she was about to face.

What she was about to face made itself clear as a man stumbled over the edge of the bank, Heather wasn't sure at first if the man she was seeing was alive or...well dead walking. As quietly as possible she made her way to the edge of the woods to try and hide herself. The man in question stumbled towards the waters edge and from her distance she saw him plummet to the ground into the water. This was odd behavior for a zombie Heather thought, they didn't seem to need much in the way of hydration, opting for human flesh instead.

Keeping her distance from what Heather now assumed was a human, she knew she couldn't be too careful. The man had started to do much the same as heather, cleaning himself in the water. On closer inspection Heather realised he was missing on of his hands, she winced at the thought of how the injury had come about. Deciding she was lucky he hadn't spotted her Heather turned on her heel, ready to make a quick get away from the area. Only make the same mistake the now soaking wet man had done. The crunch of branches underneath her boots vibrated around the lake and the mans head shot up. He wasn't as cautious as Heather, making his way right over to where he knew the sound had come from, he obviously had better hearing to as he was making his way to her location with speed.

Grabbing her knife from its sheaf she made a quick judgment of her chances, they weren't great. She could see he had spotted her and was making his way right towards her, shouting something incomprehensible as he did. Holding her knife in front of her she backed away from the now approaching man as he made his way up the bank towards her, leaving a damp trail as he did.

"Now now Sugar, we don't need t' pull weapons on 'ch other do we?" His accent licked at southern. He wasn't too much taller than Heather, she put him in his late forties, early fifties. He smiled at her, making himself look even more dangerous. She glanced down at the stump where his hand used to be, seeing it wasn't that old of an injury she winced, which his faced clearly registered.

"Hurt real bad...wouldn't want t' see the other guy though" his eyes roamed her body, taking in everything he could. From her hastily done doc martins to the bow on her back. He could tell just from the way she stood she had no real idea how to use it and that it was a new addition to her attire. "Look

Sugar, I ain't here t' make friends, now you be a nice lil' lady and give me whatcha got in your pack and we can leave it at 'at...how's that sound?"

Despite herself Heather laughed, she hadn't expected to be robbed, especially for what meager supplies she had left.

"You can't be serious?" she laughed "I hardly have enough for me to survive for the rest of the week, I'm not about to give it up and I doubt it would really be worth your time" Her confidence was feigned and she was sure he'd hear it in her voice. The way it wavered as she tried to look him in the eye. His face had lit up the moment she started talking.

"Well how's 'bout that...you long way from home ain'tcha?" Her accent had tipped him off, "Well England I'm Merle Dixon and why don't you let me decide what's worth my time eh?" Heather glared at him, he was toying with the knife in his waist band with his only hand. This man looked dangerous and the way he looked at Heather made her feel like prey.

Knowing he wasn't about to get a response from her he continued "What's your name huh? You out here all on your own?"

Still no response he tried again "Look I ain't about to try 'n get all pally witcha...I just thought you'd have a little more sense than to try and fight wit me...unless you like it rough"

Heather couldn't believe her ears, he was actually coming on to her, after he'd clearly tried to take her last remaining supplies. As far as Heather could see the man in front of her had nothing, no pack, the only weapon she could see was the knife in his waist band, though she was sure he couldn't survive with just that.

"I think I'm in the better position here actually," she was sure his smirk was down to the fact they both knew she was lying "Why don't you go back to your nice relaxing bath?"

He chuckled, Heather was even more terrified than she was letting on.

"You any good wit the bow?" He knew she wasn't just wanted to get her to talk.

"I'm pretty sure I could hit you from here." This elicited another laugh from the man.

"Hell sugar I could hit me from here," he said raising his stump for emphasis. Despite herself, Heather laughed. The man took this as a cue to carry on.

"Now lets say we both let go o' the knives a talk 'bout this nicely"

"Nothing to talk about, I'm not giving up my food."

"How 'bout you share a bit wit old Merle?"

"Not enough to share, how've you survived this long without any food anyway?"

"I ain't 'bout t' give you survival tips...don' even know your name Sugar"

"Heather," she blurted out "Its Heather not Sugar."

"Well...Heather" Her name wrapped around his mouth like poison, she was sure she'd just made a fatal mistake. "As I said I'm Merle, nice ta' meetcha," His eyes roamed her body again "How's a pretty thing like you survived so long anyways? 'Specially seeing as you ain't in your natural habitat."

"I'm not about to give survival tips" she threw back in his face making him smirk.

"I reckon we'd make a good team me 'n you English" he smiled "I like 'em fiesty. I've got food, plenty, I just thought you'd have summit better t' offer."

Internally Heather groaned, this was not something she wanted to get involved with but the idea of food made her salivate. The camp had meager offerings, trail mix and water was what she'd survived on.

"You haven't got a pack...where's your food?" The question hung between them as Merle turned and chuckled, he'd obviously discounted her completely as a threat not even bothering to look behind him as she lowered her knife in disbelief. She watched him as he went back to washing himself nonchalantly in the lake.

"C'mon English I'll show ya." He exited the lake with much more grace than he'd entered it, obviously reinvigorated by their encounter.

Heather balked, no idea of what to do. He was giving her a free ticket out of there. She knew she should take it and run. But surviving, if you could call it that so far on her own had been almost impossible. She'd been close to giving up and if he was walking away from her without thought, was he really that dangerous. She once again scolded herself, she shouldn't be so trusting, her past encounters when at camp had just made it so easy to like the people around her. Heather was about to turn in the other direction, ready to part ways when he called over his shoulder.

"So you comin' or what English, got some coffee brewin' in 'ta van."

That was all she needed to hear, her body responded so positively to the idea of a creature comfort she had long though lost that she almost ran towards the man around the lake while he casually strolled up the bank. Coming up towards him she slowed down, ensuring to keep her eyes on his back at all times. They neared the crest of the hill and Heather saw a white van parked haphazardly quite close, she marveled that she hadn't heard it when she was relaxing next to the lake, once again surprised at her own stupidity.

"Can you drive that thing one handed?" Heather asked sarcastically.

"You'd be surprised what I can do with one hand." He raised his eyebrows almost seductively and Heather had to hold back a choke, she was completely taken aback by his confidence.

"So...how you been survin' so long on your own so far from home?"

"I was at a camp, a summer camp. I came over from England for it as a sort of break from work. They were teaching kiddy survival I guess...archery, knot tying, how to build a fire. I thought it was all quite sweet until our camp got invaded. A few of us managed to get away...I'm the only one left." Heather hadn't realised how much she missed human contact, even just his small question had opened a flood gate of information she wanted to get off her chest. "I wish I had listened more I can hardly tie my laces properly."

He looked down at her hastily tied boot laces and chuckled.

"What about you? That injury looks pretty fresh."

"Ain't notin' I can't handle English, had to cut it off to escape, managed to do pretty well I think."

She glanced again at the stump his hand used to be and winced, it looked red and sore and pretty swollen. They made the rest of the way to the van in silence, Heather too scared to speak and he seemed happy to just carry on walking. Before he opened the door to the van he turned to her properly and held out his hand stopping her.

"Now you must think I'm pretty trustin' lettin' you back here this easy...I gotta ask you some questions first English."

Heather gulped, she knew it wasn't as good as it seemed and thought back to her chance of escape.

"You said you were the only survior? So you's ain't wit a group?"

"No...no it's just me."

"How's long it been 'just me'" he searched her eyes with his and she turned away

"A few weeks, only 5 of us managed to escape the attack, me, three other camp leaders and one of the kids. Daniel, the kid was attacked along with Tracy on the first night. Me, Craig and Sarah managed to keep going until Sarah got bit on a supply run, Craig didn't make it past that...he...he didn't make it."

He studied her once again, weighing up his options. He seemed pretty unimpressed by anything she was saying, he looked her up and down once again and turned to open the van. Heather was growing more suspicious. He didn't seem to need her (she very much needed someone else to survive...weather Merle Dixon was the answer to that she wasn't so sure). He'd managed to travel on his own one handed and from the looks of him, well fed.

"Sorry but...what's in this for you exactly? I'm barely hanging on...you look, as far as apocalypses, go pretty comfortable." Her mouth was running away from her again, her time alone had taken its toll.

"There's where you're wrong English, s'pretty hard survivin' single handedly on you's own" He paused to reach into the van where his words came true...the smell of coffee hit her nose as he poured some through a dirty rag into two mugs. "Takin' watch, supplies, Jesus even just been on your own...plus

you're the best look piece a meat I've seen in a long time, and I'm talkin' pre-apocalypse there English." He smirked at her handing her the cup of coffee.

Looking into the mug she could still see ground coffee floating to the surface, but the smell was enough to drive her mad. She took one gulp and let the liquid run down her throat, it could possibly be the best cup of coffee she'd ever tasted, or the worst but it was much better than the warm water Heather was used to .

"Now I ain't sayin' I needs ya, just sayin' you sure could come in useful."

"I have a choice?" She was cautious, so far he'd only hinted at being dangerous...she'd been the one to hold a knife out to him. His had remained securely tucked in his waist band the whole time.

He chuckled "You think ya' can do better on your own?" He was right of course, she hadn't been doing well, she had hardly slept these last few weeks, having to strap herself into trees using her belt, most of her day spent running or hiding. Was putting herself at the mercy of this man any different to surviving on her own? But was it worth it, she had no idea who this man was, what he wanted, what he was capable of. Heather could think of one thing that would giver her her answer; time.

"You got any sugar in there?"

A smile spread across his face.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

It had been two hours since Merle Dixon had found Heather at the lake, and he'd talked pretty much non-stop. He'd been handcuffed to a rooftop in the middle of Atlanta by a 'No-good, pumped up pig in a uniform'. They'd left him there, to die, dropped the key down a drain. He'd sawed off his own hand to escape and fought through the city single handedly (literally). The way he told it he was a hero done wrong, the way Heather saw it he must have done something to be handcuffed to the roof in the first place and it didn't take a genius to figure out what.

It wasn't by chance Merle had come to the lake, he was on his way back to where he called camp. He had recalled quite poetically all the camp members he had. There was a lot of them, most Merle talked about in a very unflattering way. The main person he was looking for was his Brother. Daryl.

"So English.."

"You know I really don't appriciate the nick name. Heather will do just fine."

"I'm sure it would Sugar. Now once we get to camp, It ain't gonna be pretty. Those bastards left me there t' die."

"But the van...this van, it's theirs. So they were coming back for you?" Merle didn't say anything.

"Ma' baby brother on his own probably."

They'd been driving steadily through the hills, however Merle soon came to a stop. The area was idyllic. The mountains proved a stunning backdrop to what would have been a fantastic camping spot. However there wasn't anyone there, no tents, no cars, nothing. What did remain was 5 hastily dug graves and a pile of ashes.

Heather watched Merle as he stumbled towards the unmarked graves. She could only imagine what was running through his mind. Throughout their drive each sentence was punctuated with Daryl, how he was looking for him, knew he'd still be alive. Staring at the graves, Heathers stomach dropped.

"Merle..."

"S'not him...can't be."

"Merle I..."

"I said it's not FUCKIN' him." He was screaming now, he'd fallen to his knees next to the graves, and was holding himself up with his one good hand.

The silence was deafening, Heather couldn't stand to watch it. She'd know Merle two hours and watching him was heart breaking. Walking to check the whole clearing her mind buzzing. What had happened here? Was Merles brother dead, would Merle survive this, should she even care if he did. The query was completely clear, no sign of anything living, or formally living. They cleared the area pretty well.

Walking back towards Merle she saw that he had composed himself a little more and was now heading towards the van.

"Where are you going?" He didn't even turn around before replying.

"Fort Benning."

"Huh? What?" She had no idea what that was.

"It's an Army post, Shane, the hyped up wanna be leader was talkin' 'bout headin' there for weeks. It's bound to still be standin', one of the biggest in America." He'd got to the van by now, opening its back doors. Heather peaked inside, seeing camping equipment, cans of food, survival to her. He grabbed a Jerry can and proceeded to fill the van up.

"You think that's where they would head then, after..."

"Think its our best chance, even if they didn't. Might be somethin' there." He spilt a little of the petrol down the side of the van, trying to keep it steady with his stump.

"Here, let me." Heather said rushing forward and grabbing it from Merles hand. He didn't argue, Heather was wary of trying to help him too much, she knew how easily damaged a mans ego was.

"S'bout 150 miles from here, will take us a while travellin'" Merle looked at her, unsure.

"Got no where else do be do I?" She smiled at him, if she was going to travel with him, across the now desolate highways of a country she had no bearings in, she had to be positive. It did the trick, he smiled at her and headed toward the drivers side of the van while she finished filling up.

Hopping into the van Merle pulled out of the clearing without a word, Heather used this time to weigh up her options. This man was on a mission to find his brother, this mission was leading her to what could be the safest place during an apocalypse. To her an Army base sounded like a safe haven. Her original worries about teaming up with Merle still rang through her mind. He wasn't an easy person to read, he seemed to have no reason to save her at all, he wasn't exactly prince charming. She knew part of the reason for her tagging along was down to Merle being a man and her being female, his words had indicated it at least. He broke the silence.

"It weren't him y'know, whatever went down at camp, ma baby brother's still alive. No one can kill a Dixon but a Dixon."

"I have no idea if any of my family are still alive, there weren't any reports on this anywhere else in the world...but seeing as there's been planes, I mean it can't just be here can it?"

"Spect it's everywhere sugar."

There was nothing Heather could say to that, the idea that her whole family were dead left her speechless. There were in the same position now, her and Merle, both unsure of what had happened to their family and Merle had at least a small chance of finding his.

Heading further away from the City of Atlanta the roads got clearer and clearer, where once there was traffic jams for miles now stood desolate highways with one or two cars dotted around. No doubt survivors running out of fuel with no option but to survive on foot. Heather thought about her chances without Merle, they were slim. She'd survived so far on pure luck she was sure. The area they'd be at camp was already pretty far away from any civilization.

Steadily clear blue skies gave way to darker starry night and Heather looked to Merle for any indication that he was looking to rest for the night.

"Gotta get off the highway, ain't safe."

Merle turned the van off the road and put it in park, scouting the area as he did so.

"We got two choices as I see it" he looked at her, "We can stay in the van, s'more than enough room. Or we can hike a ways up in the woods and camp out."

"Either beats sleeping in trees."

"Van it is then, I'll take first watch." He wasn't looking at her now. Purposefully avoiding her gaze.

Heathers mind span into overdrive. It had now been about half a day, if not more since she'd met Merle. Normally she'd run a mile, but circumstances weren't normal anymore. Now she wasn't looking at him Merles eyes were on her. She hadn't said anything or made a move.

"I ain't gonna attack 'ya in the night English, ain't my style."

"No...no I...well I guess I don't know do I?" Nervous laughter filled the cab of the van.

"Look, just go in the back, there's a sleeping bag 'n stuff I was using."

She glanced into the back of the van. It all seemed so strange, one day ago she was alone, sleeping in trees, struggling. Now Merle was offering her this, she could hardly process it. Clambering ungraciously over the seats she took a look at what was in the van. Plenty of packaged food, water, and boxes upon boxes. If this was anything to go by, she'd hit the jackpot in apocalypse buddies.

Finding the sleeping bag, blankets and pillow Merle had mentioned she hunkered down, listening to the silence around her. Relishing how comfortable she was, how safe she felt, her thoughts strayed to her new travelling companion. Nothing was certain now, she was terrified of everything; her decision to stick with Merle, what would have happened had she not found him. Heather could very well be dead in a ditch right now. She couldn't shoot, could hardly fight, had no idea how to survive in this new world. Merle however looked like he had already been surviving. He didn't strike Heather as someone who was living a life of luxury pre-apocalypse. As these thoughts whirled around her head Heather found herself drifting to sleep.

Slowly Heather woke up, getting her bearings she remembered where she was. She heard faint snoring coming from the front of the van. Stretching as she got up Heather knocked a bag from on top of the boxes. Curiosity settling in Heather grabbed the bag and peaked in, Ropes...just ropes. She wasn't sure what she expected, ropes were practical right?

Shimmying through Merles stash of boxes toward the front of the van Heather saw his chest rising and falling rhythmically. She climbed back over the seats and grabbed a water bottle from the floor of the cab. Relaxing over the bench seat she put her feet up on the dash. From this position Heather couldn't see any sign of what the world had become around her. Merle had driven the van just enough into the forest so you couldn't see the road.

It had been a few hours, Heather thought, before Merle woke up. At first he looked confused, almost as if he'd forgotten about Heather completely.

"Why don't you go in back, get some real sleep?" She offered.

"I shouldn't of been asleep, I was on watch.'

"Doesn't matter, everything's fine."

"Not the point."

Silence filled the van as Heather tried to gauge the situation. "Its gotta be my turn anyway, go on." she said, gesturing the back of the van.

Merles eyes lingered on Heather for too long before he made a move, hauling himself out of the front seat he pushed himself into the back of the van, more gracious than Heather even with one hand. She heard him lie down and make himself comfortable.

"Sit in the drivers...just incase we need to make a quick getaway" he called from the back.

Silence followed this and Heather could only guess Merle was asleep in the back. Staring in the trees Heather realised how Merle had let himself doze off, there was something so still and quiet about the area.

Three hours followed where Heather was bored, bored for the first time since the apocalypse hit. She hadn't had much time to get bored on her own. Between running and hiding and fighting, boredom really wasn't a factor. Her mind wandered to her life before all this. Coffee mornings, long runs through the city, lay in's and afternoon lectures. Flashes of her home town passed through her vision, cobbled streets, friendly strangers and her family. Life was vastly different, but somehow it Heather didn't feel like the person she was in her old life. This new world had already changed her enough so that she had no real feelings on her life pre-apocalypse. Looking down at herself physical changes had already started to manifest. Before this Heather was all soft edges, not big but certainly larger than she was now. Weeks of rationing food had taken a toll.

Heather pulled up the leg of her trousers and examined the gash on her leg, it already looked like it was healing and would start to match the other grazes and cuts she had on her body from various close in counters. One nasty bruise in particular she got when she hadn't tied herself to a tree successfully and got a very nasty wake up call.

Grabbing her back from the passenger side she unzipped the front pocket and got out her anti-spetic cream, smearing some on the cut she heard movement in the back of the van. Lifting herself out of the seat only slightly to check she saw a bleary eyed Merle shrugging his shirt back on.

"Mornin' Sugar' he grinned at her, his mood had changed considerably with a few hours sleep.

Clambering through the van, grabbing a few things on his way, he motioned for Heather to move out of the drivers seat.

"So...what's the plan? Still Fort Benning?" Heather took one of the packs of Jerky Merle was handing out to her with a smile.

"Unless ya thought up a better plan while I was having my beauty sleep?" Heather shook her head and started eating her Jerky.

"Quickest route there is the 85" Merle said, Heather watched as he unfolded a map that he'd taken from under his seat, "but I reckon all the main roads is gonna be blocked, better taking the road less traveled."

Heather nodded along with Merle, she really had no choice but to agree with him, he was not only on home land but seemed a lot more confident than Heather ever felt. Merle crammed the last few bits of Jerky into his mouth before starting the van. Making their way down the verge towards the road in silence.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three They'd been on the road for about half an hour when they met a road blockage, abandoned cars littered the road for what Heather swore was miles. There was no end to the metal graveyard in front of her and as far as she could tell, no way to get through. The cars had been long abandoned, a few had bodies left inside. However, from what Heather could see, they were unmoving, and more than likely actually dead.

"Man, wish I still had my bike" Merle muttered to himself staring at the road outside.

"Bike?"

"Yah, had it for years now, she was beautiful. Custom triumph...probably looks like these cars now" Sadness punctuated Merles words. The bike was obviously important to him "Unless Daryl had something to say 'bout it. Would come in right handy now."

"Think we can get through without it? Or push through?"

"More trouble than its worth if ya ask me, reckon it's best to take a detour." Merle glanced behind them getting ready to reverse or turn around.

"Wanna check the cars first? I bet there's gonna be a lot of useful stuff here, most people were probably packing for an apocalypse."

"I like your thinkin' English."

As a team they started to scavenge the cars, looting anything they thought was useful.

A few cars into their search Heather had her head in the front seat of a beat up Impala, this car however didn't look well stocked for the new front seat was covered in blood, the drivers side window smashed. Not thinking too hard about what happened to its owners Heather grabbed the pack of twizzlers sticking out the glove box, ripping it open and popping one in her mouth, she backed out of the car.

"I reckon this is your style eh Sugar?" called Merle from the back of the car. He was balancing a lacey bra on one of his fingers, grinning manically. The red bra swung back and forward as Merle raised his eyebrows at Heather.

"What the fuck Merle? What happened to looking for necessities?"

"C'mon girlie, just cos the worlds ended doesn't mean your sex life has ta."

Heather glared at him, one eyebrow raised as he laughed, throwing the offending item back in the car.

"Anything USEFUL?"

"No, guess not" Merle grumbled, head down. They moved on to the next car, Merle still looking put out.

In the tenth car they scavenged they hit the jackpot, Merle said its owner must have been 'ex-army'. Guns and ammo littered the floor, Heather had never seen so many firearms before, Merle just looked slightly impressed. All the guns were loaded into a duffle bag and Merle took them straight to the van, whistling as he did.

About 25 cars into their search they'd gathered a sizable pile of supplies. Heather had found herself a new knife, she had proudly stuck it in her belt loop. Merle had found something in one of the cars that made him make a whooping sound so loud that Heather had to tell him to shut up, he just laughed louder and stuffed whatever it was in his pocket.

Moving their new supply into the back of the van, Heather couldn t help but smile. It had been barely 24 hours since she'd met Merle, but so far they'd made a pretty good team. He didn t talk a lot, not since they'd left the quarry which was fine by Heather. She wasn't sure they'd get on so well if he did.

"Thinkin' again English?" They'd got in the van and Merle had already started to back away from the traffic jam in silence, Heather lost in thought. Merle looked amused as if he'd been watching her the whole time, Heather oblivious.

"You think too much, you know that?"

"There's a lot to think about" Heather replied simply.

"Better to do than think English, thinkin' can get you killed."

Silence followed Merles statement as Heather watched the Highway melt away behind her. Impossibly wide roads giving way to windy country lanes as they got further away from the traffic.

They'd been driving for hours talking every now and then about plans for survival, a little about the past and less about the future. Merle turned the van carelessly around a sharp corner, causing gravity to push Heather across the bench seat and into him.

"If ya' wanted to snuggle sugar all ya' had to do was ask." Merles arm snaked around her, his stump resting on the steering wheel lightly.

Merle grinned down at her as she struggled to untangle herself from him.

"Very funny Me..."

Before she could finish chastising him Merle swore loudly.

They'd practically driven into a horde of walkers, all milling aimlessly around something in the middle of the road. Their dead bodies smacking into each other as they wandered around what Heather realised was burnt out car. One of the walkers slowly turned to look at them, stopping in his tracks and staring hungrily at the two survivors in the van.

"Fuck" Heather whispered, as now, the majority of the undead turned to look at the van. Merle was struggling to get the van back into the right gear, the grinding just alerting more walkers to their presence. As they started to descend upon them Heather just stared ahead as Merles fingers grappled for the gear stick. The walkers, in what felt like lightening speed to Heather, headed toward the van. Alerted by the noised and attracted even more by the two living bodies inside, as one they clamboured toward them.

"Merle, Merle what do we do?" Walkers were now surrounding the van, banging and scratching the doors. Everywhere Heather looked she saw snapping jaws, rotting limbs and dead eyes.

"Ya ready for this Sugar?"

"Ready for what?"

Merle just looked at her, a grin spread across his face. He pushed open the door, using his foot to put as much force behind it as possible, causing the walkers scratching to get in to fall on impact. Jumping into the middle of the group Merle started to stab and slash. Gutting one walker in the same movement that beheaded another.

Breathing heavily Heather placed her hand on the door handle, her mind rushing a mile a minute. Fists banged against her door as Heather sat and did nothing. She couldn t move, her whole body was frozen in the front seat of the van. She could see Merle in her peripheral vision, grabbing and stabbing every walker he could, fighting to stay alive.

"English?! C'mon stop thinking"

Merles shouts shocked Heather out of her state, she pulled herself out of her seat, copying his move she pushed both of her legs against the door. Grabbing her knife out of the her waist band as she did so she practically fell out the van. Getting her balance just before her head hit the ground she was on all fours, face to face with one of the walkers that she'd rammed the door into.

Clutching at her knife Heather pushed herself to her feet, breathing fast she rammed the knife as hard as she could into the walkers head. Here she learnt her first mistake in fighting a horde, don't shove your only weapon so hard into zombie skull that you can't pull it out again. Her foot pushed down hard onto the walkers neck as she attempted to pull the knife out. Moaning got louder behind her as she was focused on this one kill.

Turning around there was another Walker practically on top of her, giving one more unsuccessful tug at the knife embedded in the skull, Heather looked around her for another weapon to use. Thinking fast she grabbed the van door, slamming it as fast as she could, smashing the walkers head through the glass of the window, lodging several large shards of glass in its head.

Rushed with adrenaline Heather grabbed the knife and gave it one fast pull, with a crunch and a soft squelch the blade was dislodged from the head blood flying along with it, splattering over Heathers face. Finally getting into the swing of it Heather continued to dispatch the walkers. Kicking them in the shins first, successfully getting them to the ground before plunging her knife in their heads, ending their groaning.

Eight walkers down, she had time to look over to Merle, he was like a machine, grabbing each walker in a headlock with his handless arm and slamming his own knife into each ones skull. He'd got hold of his new prey, this walker however, had other ideas. The Walker had seized onto his waist, scratching at his vest trying to get any part of him. Merle, consumed with this one kill had failed to notice the other walker quickly approaching him.

Pushing a walker, intent on taking a bite out of her leg aside, Heather ran towards Merle. Using the van to push herself towards the walker, she used all the adrenaline to grab it and push it to the ground, smacking into Merle and his opponent as she did. Slamming her knife into the monsters head Heather turned to see Merle finally get one up on his walker, colliding its head into the ground with a sickening crunch. Turning round to see her, Merles face was unreadable... he looked around himself. They'd taken down a hefty amount of the walkers, the few left were either still milling around the burnt out car or slowly moving towards them. With a nod towards Heather, Merle started to head towards the van, casually plunging his knife into a walkers skull as he did so, not even turning to see if he'd struck. Defeated Heather followed, dodging a female walker trying to grab her hair.

Opening her side of the door, Heather cringed at the blood and brains covering the broken shards still in the window. Getting in, glass crunched under her feet on the floor of the van. Finally sitting down Heathers mind was racing again, with what had happened, what she had done, who she had killed. Sure she'd killed Walkers before, but this was different. This felt like a slaughter. Still covered in blood, the roar of the engine pulled her out of her thoughts.

Without a word Merle turned the car around, backing into a few walkers as he did so. The wheels getting slightly stuck, no doubt on someone's rib cage, Heather thought morbidly. Merle pressed hard on the gas, dislodging the tyres and speeding away. Twenty minutes passed as they silently drove away from what was the horde.

"Can't believe you smashed my window English" Merle said, still looking straight ahead of him out the windscreen.

Before she could respond Merles face cracked into a smile and he started laughing. The sound of it filled the van as they drove away.

"Thank you..." There was no other words, Merle looked as if they were hard enough to muster.

Heather smiled, it was enough.

"You're welcome Merle." 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Another night sleeping in the van had left both of its inhabitants a bit cranky, neither one of them liked being cooped up. Heather had taken first watch this time, letting Merle sleep off his exhaustion. The five hours passed slowly, the area they'd found this time wasn't quite as secluded as the one Merle had picked previously. A few stray walkers had walked past as they hid, though they paid the van no attention, so Heather gave them the same courtesy, not wanting to make unnecessary noise.

At around 4am Heather woke Merle up, as soon as she hit the thin sleeping bag, she was asleep. Her dreams were punctuated with the fight from that day. The fitful sleep didn't last long, as she started to walk through the boxes towards the front of the van, she could see Merle was studying a map intently.

"Mornin" he grumbled, not looking at her.

"Good Morning! Making plans?"

"I reckon we need a base, somewhere to stay for a bit."

"What about Fort benign?"

Merle chuckled, "Benning, I just thought we should hunker down somewhere for a while, get some rest. I dunno just.."

"If you think so, I'm not gonna argue over a good night's sleep and a change of clothes."

"Didn't ya here, bloods the new black darlin' "

After a while of deliberating, mainly Merle with himself. Pouring over the map, talking about towns and populations and when they could have fallen. In the end It was decided that they'd head to a town called Oxford, Merle said the population was small so they wouldn't need to worry. Heather laughed, she was thinking back to England, where the population of Oxford sat at way more than she'd like to imagine.

Back on the road again Merle was more lighthearted than he'd been since the quarry, the window down he'd even turned the CD player on and was humming along as they drove along the back roads.

Here and there they saw a few walkers, nothing like the horde they'd driven into the day before, some groups of five, Merle didn't stop for any of them, choosing to swerve the car around them and speed off instead.

The drive was, Heather had no other words, enjoyable! They drove along for hours, sometimes forgetting that they were in an apocalypse completely. Merle regailed her with stories of bar fights he'd won while Heather spoke of the sleepy town she'd come from and her reasons for coming to America.

It wasn't long before Merle pointed at a street sign, they'd made it with little difficulty. Merle was right, this town was tiny. The houses were mainly one story, along straight roads with huge gardens. Trees lined each side, it almost looked unaffected by the new world. None of the houses looked looted, all of the cars intact. There were a few obvious signs, no humans in sight being the main one.

Merle said their best bet for safety would be to find something near stores, where they'd have supplies and possibly more security. The town was so small, it didn t take long. Down one of the even smaller roads, they came across a sports supply store. It wasn't big, but had shutters which Heather pointed out looked pretty intact.

Slowly pulling up in front of the store, Merle and He

ater quietly exited the van. Heather couldn't believe how silent the town was now that the engine wasn't running. The world was a lot quieter now, Heather knew that, this town seemed eerily hushed though.

Merle didn't seem to notice, or if he did he didn't let it bother him. He'd gone straight over to the shutters, shoving his blade under it trying to figure out how it worked. Heather slowly made her way over, studying the whole building as she did. From her view, Merle had chosen well, the front entrance seemed pretty secure, or at least Merles struggles make it look so. It was also two stories high, which Heather could see them using to their advantage. Grabbing her knife Heather travelled further round the side of the store, to see if there were any other entrances. Smiling as she found a lot less secure looking side door, they could easily board this up if needed.

"Merle!"

"Kinda busy here English, if ya' hadn't noticed."

"Just come here Merle."

A few more heavy bashes were given to the shutters and Merle seemed to give in, seconds later he was with her, looking annoyed.

"Whats the point in these fucking shutters if they just have a flimsy door here?"

Heather just shrugged, moving aside as Merle motioned her to. Bracing himself, Merle faced the door sideways and rammed his body into the door, practically knocking it off his hinges. Heather stood, agape. She'd only ever seen that done on TV, and it always took 3 or 4 tries. Looking at Merle, his face was smug.

Wordlessly he turned and walked into the now "open" door. To Heather, it seemed the store had just shut the day of the apocalypse, not to be opened till they'd barged in. The door they'd knocked down led them straight into the back room, shelves of boxes covered the walls, with piles of more in the middle of the room. Towards the back of the room Heather saw another door, looking like it led to an office or possibly break room, and stairs to the other level. There was only one other door in the room, apart from the one Merle had knocked down, which must have lead to the store itself.

Merle working faster than her had already headed towards the door towards the rear of the room, knife in hand, ready for attack.

"Stay there English, I'm gonna check for Walkers."

"But what if.."

"I said stay there."

She didn t argue, Merle had helped her so far, she wanted to help him but knew when she'd be pushing her luck. Instead she stayed near the broken door, making sure all the noise Merle had made with the shutters hadn't attracted anything to them.

She studied the storage room, it all seemed untouched. Smaller boxes lined one of the walls, stacked neatly in rows that must have been footwear. One wall had a poster about the perfect smile to give customers. This made Heather, unintentionally smile. The thought of having a job, of being a customer, of buying clothes just seemed so alien to her already.

Crashing from the stairs alerted her to Merles return, as he seemed to plough through the door a smile on his face.

"We ve hit the jackpot here English!"

Before she was allowed to look herself Merle said they should try and get the stuff from the van they needed, so they could make a temporary barricade for the door. Following Merle out of the building Heather felt the smile return to her face. During the weeks she was on her own, she really felt like her life was over. She wasn't surviving so much as just delaying the inevitable. The last few days with Merle had been an improvement, but this felt like something solidly good.

The van was packed with unmarked boxes Heather hadn't wanted to just rifle through, whenever they needed something, Merle had got it. Heather stood at the back of the van, while Merle went through the boxes, occasionally passing her one that he thought they would need. In the end they had a few trips to make to clear everything important from the van. Finally Merle grabbed Heathers backpack and bow, slinging them over his shoulder he jumped down from the van and closed the doors behind him.

"What've you got in here Sugar?" Merle said, lifting the bag off of his shoulder.

"My boots," Heather laughed, she had swaped them for her trainers on the first night she'd stayed with Merle. He just made an inaudible noise making Heather laugh more.

Once they were inside the store, with all their boxes piled into one of the corners they got to work boarding up the door.

"Right English, hold these" Merle said as he held out nails he'd procured from one of the boxes. Heather felt useless as Merle lifted the door back into place easily, pushing a wooden plank against it and keeping it there with his stump.

"English, one of us is gonna have to trust the other one..."

"I'll hold the nail."

"Good."

Walking forward Heather held her hand just above where Merles stump kept the board in place. He backed off to find a hammer as Heather positioned the nail where she thought it should go.

"Good work sugar" Merle was behind her already, close to her she felt his hand shift hers slightly so the nail was fractionally higher.

With precision Merle stood by her side and carefully started to hit the nail into place. He didn t miss, not once. By the end they both stood back and admired their (mainly Merles) work.

"Ready for the grand tour?" Smiles wide on their faces, Merle led Heather to the back door.

He pushed open the door, motioning her to go ahead of him. Cautiously moving into the room, Heather realised it was just a staircase to the second floor of the store. Going faster now she bounded up the stairs, pushing through another door to see what was behind.

Jackpot may have been pushing it, but Heather was impressed. The room she was in now was obviously the break room, a small kitchenette lined one wall with a table and chairs in the middle, towards the back there was a soft looking sofa next to a door that look like it led to an office. What Merle was pointing at though, were the windows. They gave them a view of the town, across some of the houses, fields and roads.

Merle was walking towards the office door, pushing it open he propped a chair against it. Heather walked through, noting the lock on the door, incase they ever needed it. The office was fairly small, room enough for a desk, chair and safe.

"So...whatcha think English? Good enough?"

"Good enough? It's brilliant Merle."

Down on the first level again, they decided to investigate the store. It was, again quite small. They mainly stocked simple sports stuff, clothing and a few bits of equipment. It didn t take them long to clear the store, Merle and Heather both picking out clothing they wanted as they walked through. Heather wasn't being particularly picky, anything in her size would do. So far she'd got herself a new pair of shorts (something she desperately needed after being in jeans so long in the Atlanta heat.) She had a few t shirts and jackets in her pile as well, going for practicality and comfort.

Once they were upstairs Merle said she could have the privacy of the office to change, throwing her a bottle of water and some wet wipes he'd pulled from one of the boxes she smiled thankfully. Pushing open the door to the office Heather didn't hesitate to get undressed. Pulling of her filthy hoodie and jeans she stood in just her once white t-shirt and underwear. Grabbing the wet wipes and water Merle had thrown her way she got to work cleaning the wound in her leg, it was certainly looking a lot better and wasn't nearly as swollen as a weeks ago.

The wipes did a better job at cleaning her skin than she even thought possible, the dirt between her toes which hadn't washed off even in the lake, had finally gone. Grabbing a t-shirt and a pair of shorts she'd raided from downstairs Heather put them on, relishing the feeling of clean fabric against her skin. Pulling her hair into a ponytail she carefully pushed open the office door, making sure Merle had finished changing before she went in.

He stood, in clean cargo pants and a vest, almost a carbon copy of his previous outfit. Turning to look at her he held out his arms so she could get a proper look.

"Very nice Merle..."

"Looking good English! Now...how 'bout we get to know each other a little better?" He said shaking a bottle of whiksey in his hand. 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Merles rough laughter filled the room.

"Now now, don't look so scared English...I just meant, if we're gonna be apocalypse buddies, don t you think we should know a bit more 'bout each other?"

Giving him a wary look still, Heather walked towards the windows, glancing outside she couldn't see any movement. The sky was getting gradually darker, turning toward the room Heather sat herself on the dusty sofa pushed against the wall.

"What exactly did you want to know Merle?"

"Jesus...I dunno, I don't even know how old ya are English."

"29." Heather said, without missing a beat.

"Huh, I woulda guessed younger," Merle smiled, ever the charmer.

"And you?"

"48...but you woulda guess younger, right?"

Heather smiled as Merle tipped the bottle to his lips. He sat on the other side of the sofa, pulling one of the break room chairs to prop his legs up on. Offering the bottle to Heather, she deliberated. It had been months since she'd had a drink, even before she apocalypse she hadn't been drunk in weeks. The alcohol called out to her, something to numb what the previous day and left her with, something to fall asleep with. Grabbing the bottle off him she put it to her lips, relishing the warm burning sensation as it trickled down her throat.

"Where ya from?"

"You wouldn't know it..."

"Try me sugar."

"Guildford, it s about an hour from London...small town, cobbled streets, pretty boring. How about you? You from around Atlanta?"

"Blairsville, up in the Georgia Mountains, 'bout a two hour drive from Atlanta. Beautiful around this time of year."

"Came down for the safe zone?"

"Ma' baby brothers idea, I wanted to hike further in the mountains, don't get no people there let alone walkers."

"Darly?"

"Yeah Daryl."

"Is he your only family..?" Silence followed Heather's question as Merle played with the label on the whiskey bottle. "I had three brothers," Heather continued "And my Mum and Dad...I had only just got back from uni when I said I was coming here. I wanted to get away for a bit before I started my life I guess? I'd done courses back to back, hoping to get into teaching. That s why I did the kiddy camp, thought it would look good on my CV."

"Ya what?"

"CV...it's like...a resume do you call it?" Merle made a noise to signify he understood "Yeah, I just didn't want to grow up I guess. Bit late for that now."

"What did you do before this?"

"Ain't important now is it." He was looking straight ahead of him, lost in his own world. Talking of Daryl had hit a sore spot.

"I think it is, you obviously did something that helped you get through all this?"

"Army," Merle grumbled "After spending more time in juvie than school, I didn't have much choice, then spent more time in Jail in than in service."

"Right."

Awkward silence followed this, it hit Heather that she had no idea who it was she was travelling with. She knew he was more than just a little rough around the edges, but he'd saved her, undeniably making her life better than it was before she'd met him. Merle had got up and was staring out the windows across the town.

They carried on talking, through the night. The bottle got emptier and they got louder, laughing at their first impressions of each other. Merle said he thought he'd found a Siren. This made Heather laugh so much she almost fell off the sofa.

"What? I was almost delirious?! And you washin' in the lake all..." He didn't get to finish his sentence as Heather laughed harder. "Yeah very funny English, what did ya' think of me?"

"I was scared," Heather said composing herself "I hadn't seen anyone in weeks. You charged up to me and practically mugged me!"

It was Merle's turn to laugh as he remembered their meeting. The room was so dark now, they could hardly make each other out.

"You take the couch, I'll take the sleeping bag. I'm gonna do a quick check downstairs." He didn't leave her time to argue as his heavy footsteps crashed on the stairs.

Grabbing the sleeping bag from their pile of boxes Heather laid it out neatly on the floor, chucking a few of the cushions from the sofa for good measure. She lay down, feeling more comfortable than she had in a while. She didn t even stay awake to hear Merle come back, the alcohol and safety taking over her and pushing her into a deep sleep.

The next morning Heather woke slowly, a nice change to the sudden wake up calls she was used to. The sun had started to pour in from the windows. Shifting on the sofa so she sat up straight, she saw Merle was still asleep on the floor. Tiptoeing round, being careful not to wake him, Heather made her way towards the kitchenette. Rifling through the box on the counter she grabbed two of the breakfast bars a couple of bottles of water and a bag of jerky. Setting them down on the table, she made her way quietly over to the window. The view seemed wider than even yesterday, the rising sun bounced off of windows glaring through their small room. Scanning the whole scene movement caught her eye. One lone walker wandered down a road quiet far from their location. She followed him as he made his way down the road. It was strange, to be able to watch from a distance, Heather could see the aimless way he ambled, stopping to stare randomly.

Noises behind her alerted Heather to Merles rousing.

"There's a walker." Merle shot up, panicked "No, sorry not here, not here...there." She pointed out the window as Merle joined her.

"Ain't nothing to worry about."

"I guess not."

They both ate their breakfast looking out over the town, Heather had pulled two of the seats so they could sit and watch the sun change the landscape. They stood like this, for a while, not saying anything. Heather's eyes followed the one lone walker, still shuffling down the road, occasionally stopping in his tracks.

"Got any plans for today?" Heather asked

"I was thinkin' of going to the bar...maybe grab my bike 'n go for a ride." Smirking Merle still stared out of the window. "We need to draw up a plan, go check some of the houses round here."

"We need some proper food, and a lot more water."

"How 'bout we start by drawin' up a map, of these surroundin' houses, check each one."

"Sounds as good a plan as any."

Heather got to work, taking the marker Merle offered to her she drew on the staff room table. A big square with a H signified where they were. Around it she drew what she could see from the window, there were fields which led on to houses, past that she couldn't see much. The plan of the town was simple, but it would do for a start. They could make it more detailed the more they explored.

"Do you think they have a library here Merle?"

"Why...you wanna pick up your studies?"

"Just thought they might have something on the town, like a book or map?"

Merle just nodded, signifying that he agreed, but wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of saying it was a good idea.

All they did that day was plan, Merle said they needed a system to make sure they went to every house, but stayed as safe as possible. At first the system was that Merle did all the work, he'd go to each house separately and raid it. Heather argued until she was included. Next step was to black out the windows.

"Room with a view ain't as pretty as it sounds anymore. We could attract attention."

The windows were boarded up, much like the door downstairs, this time they used boxes rather than wood. About halfway through the job, Merle said he needed more boxes, leaving Heather to "make some damn coffee".

She looked at the supplies Merle had given her. A small gas camping stove looked menacingly at her. Heather had no idea how to light it...camping wasn't one of her prefered past times. Grabbing the lighter she stood the stove in one of the darker corners where they'd already boarded up the windows, not wanting make anything outside aware they were there. Clicking the button on the side of the stove it made a hissing sound. Carefully Heather flicked the lighter, flames burst from the point of contact. Smugly Heather smiled. She'd never been practical before. Picking the pot of coffee from the side she added cold water to it, gently placing it on the stove top. It was the small victories.

As the coffee boiled she thought of all the supplies Merle had, were they in the van when he stole it? Or had he managed to pillage enough when he was fighting through the city. Banging on the stairs signified Merles return. He pushed through the door, cardboard in hand a grin wide across his face.

"Good work sugar!" he nodded at the coffee pot. After a while she grabbed the pot from the stove, pouring it through the rag into two mugs. She stood and sipped at her coffee, happy to enjoy something so simple.

They carried on with their work. Using gaffa tape to stick the card in place, Heather stood on one of the chairs to reach higher as Merle held it in place. Merle's mood was erratic. He was chatting non-stop, about anything at all. Heather was standing on the chair, reaching to get the board in one of the higher spots. Reaching too far she almost fell, Merle grabbed her by the waist. Not letting go, even after she was steady, his hand travelled up her body.

"Fuck, Merle seriously?"

"C'mon Sugar..." His hand stopped close to her breast "I'm the only man your gonna get for miles."

Grabbing his hand she pushed it away from her "Good try Merle."

He laughed loudly, his whole body vibrated with it.

"Now English, lets be nice eh? We ain't got nothin' better to do."

"I do" Heather said pushing Merle away from her and carrying on with her task. Merle fell to the ground, still laughing.

"What's wrong with you? You're in an apocalypse Merle. I've never even seen you scared! You're always just pissing around, you look like you enjoyed killing all those people the other day."

"PEOPLE?! They weren t people sugar! They were dead already, and if you hadn't noticed they were pretty intent on taking a big bite out of your pretty little head."

"But they were people Merle."

"And we still fucking are! We need to kill them to get through this huh? I ain't about to sit back and let them take over, and I sure ain't gonna let them take away what I am."

"Don't you think taking this seriously might get you further?"

"I seem to be doing a-ok on my own."

"Well if you started acting a little better maybe you d still have two hands, maybe you d still have Daryl"

She'd gone too far. Heather could see it, he had given up. His body crumpled, he wouldn t look at her. Silently he got up from the floor, where once laughter filled the room now was replaced with awkward silence. Wiping his hands on his trousers he turned and left the room.

Heathers hands dropped to her side. She slid down on the chair and sat, staring ahead of her. Her words echoed in her mind, she hadn't thought about it before she said it. She knew Merles attitude was the only thing getting him through. Ignoring what was happening and living anyway had got him this far, and he was doing a lot better than her with it.

She got up from her seat, heading down stairs. Her footsteps rang through the building, surely alerting Merle to her approach.

"Merle...Merle?"

No answer, once she got to the bottom of the stairs the reason Merle didn't answer her became glaringly obvious. The side door to outside stood open, the wooden board left discarded on the floor.

He'd left. 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

It had been four days, four days since Merle had run out. He'd taken the van and all it held. Heather hadn't seen one sighting of him out of the window, or when she decided to take a run around the town. She'd used this time practically. She had figured out how the shutters on the front doors worked (there was an electronic button which obviously didn t work, but you could hand crank them as well). She'd put the door back in place and managed to secure it well using the wood from before, it looked almost as secure as when Merle had done it. The office had turned into her very own storage unit, clearing out everything that was once in there and using the lock to her advantage. Stacking boxes around the edge of the room Heather had made areas for types of supplies.

She'd seen a few walkers, especially when she went out looking for him. Most were alone, looking as if they'd walked for miles unfed, wandering around aimlessly until they got scent of Heather. Dispatching them quickly she'd carried on. For four days she was sure he wouldn t be back.

It must have been mid-day, Heather was plotting her next move, drawing extra houses onto her table map from her excursion the day before. Banging filled the air, she heard it from every angle. Rushing to the small gap she'd left in the windows she saw nothing, the landscape looked the same as ever.

Down the stairs the baging was very obviously coming from the door.

"Open up English!"

"Merle?!"

"Well it ain't the pizza delivery."

"Come to the front I'll open the shutters."

Running through the store she started winding the shutters up as Merle waited, impatiently, outside.

He pushed his way roughly in, looking no worse for wear then the day he left. They stood staring at each other, unspoken words raging through their minds. Heather started to crank the shutters down as Merle paced around the store, like a caged tiger.

Finally the shutters were down, she turned to him as he continued to pace. Neither of them said anything.

"Merle I'm..."

"No, I shouldn't have gone, shouldn't have left."

His words hung heavy between them, he wasn't pacing now but looking straight at her, almost daring Heather to disagree.

"Where have you been Merle?"

"I drove, but thought better of it."

"Thought better of it?"

He ignored her question completely "Been scouting round town, saw ya yesterday."

"You saw me? Merle why didn't you just come back?"

"You should be more careful English, anyone coulda seen ya."

There was tension in the air, Merle wasn't even looking at her now.

"See you figured how to use the shutters..."

That was it, all the conversation about Merles departure, it wasn't spoken about again.

Merle spent the day showing Heather what he'd managed to find. He had a few more supplies over his excursion. He'd managed to find a massive supply of dried noodles and had looked for a library. He hadn't been yet, said that they could go together tomorrow.

"Did you see anyone? Anything while you were...out?" Heather chose her words carefully.

"Couple a walkers, nothing alive. Thought I saw somethin' in one of the houses but...think it was just the light."

They made plans for the library the next day while Heather cooked them up some noodles. They sat and ate in silence as the sun went down over Oxford.

"Merle...I shouldn't have said that about Daryl, I was way out of line. I don't know what..."

"Look sugar, I know I ain't the easiest person to live with" he paused while Heather smiled "I just thought..."

"Let's just start again eh?"

"Sure English, sure."

Heather slept better that night than she had in ages, a full stomach and guilt off your shoulders can do that.

When she woke the next morning Merle was nowhere to be seen, however she could hear him banging around down stairs and singing to himself. Making her way down Heather grinned as she heard Merle trying to hit the high notes in a song she didn't know. Pushing open the door she saw him sorting out various boxes.

He turned when he realised she was behind him, a smile wide on his face. His mood a lot better than the night before.

"Mornin' sugar!" He practically shouted.

"Morning... Ready for the library?"

Merle had already packed a backpack which he gave to Heather, listing it's contents. Food, ammo, tape, ropes and a knife amongst other things. He handed her a cup of cold coffee he'd apparently brewed while Heather was still asleep...how long had he been up? He was full of energy, must have been the coffee.

As they left Merle made Heather wait in the shop while he checked the immediate surroundings, coming back a minute later motioning her to come with him. They had no way to get the shutters down while outside of the building so Heather had to duck under low so they could be closed most of the way. Standing up straight she saw Merle getting into the van.

"Is it that far away?"

"Just precautionary English...s'worth the fuel."

Sitting in the passenger seat Heather watched the town blur past her, houses and streets she'd soon come to recognise. The town seemed even smaller now then when they'd first arrived.

It didn't take long before Merle came to a slow stop in front of a big building, all red brick with paneled windows. Merle jumped out of the van and walked towards the back, getting out his guns and supplies. Joining him Heather looked around the new part of town, still amazed at hour eerily quiet it was.

"Here ya' are." Merle called, handing her a gun.

Heather took it hesitantly, holding it away from her body. Merle stood, staring at her.

"What?"

"I've never, I haven't shot a gun before..."

Merle looked amused "Don't you think it's as good as any time to start?"

He gave her a brief run down of how to use it, showing her how to load it, take of the safety and shoot. Heather shook as he did it, trying to take in as much of what Merle said.

"So...ya ready?"

Heather nodded, still holding the gun at a strange angle, away from her body. Merle just gave her a bemused look and told her to stick to the knife unless it was dire.

They both made their way to the building, Merle walking straight past the front doors and opting to try a window instead. Testing to see if he could pull or push it open, he didn t look surprised when it swung inwards without much persuasion.

"Small town, hardly need to lock the windows in a library eh?"

Pushing it open enough for them to get through, Merle let Heather first. She grabbed the window ledge and managed to swing her leg up, just catching it she pulled herself through. Standing on the deep window sill she held her hand out to Merle, one hand steadying herself on the window, the other grabbing his stump while he used his hand to push himself up.

Both of them now stood in the building, look around themselves. This again looked like it had just been closed the day of the apocalypse, never to open again. The building looked much smaller from the inside, the room they were in was tiny, holding a few computers. Ignoring them Merle pushed the door open, revealing a much larger space. The room looked like any small library, about 4 free standing shelves took up the middle of the room while the walls were lined with books. Heather immediately went to look for the "local history" section. As she walked forward Merle put his arm out to stop her. He moved into the middle of the room, checking all corners before motioning Heather forward.

"Gotta be more careful." He muttered.

"Yeah, sorry." Merle merely grunted in response.

Checking the walls for titles Heather marveled at the sheer amount of books they'd managed to fit into such a small room. A sign on the wall told her she was currently browsing the "Philosophy" section, moving on, her eyes drawn the more used books, running her finger over the spines she thought about all the people who would have read them, enjoyed them and possibly passed them on to friends. The people who lived in this town, who were now noticeably absent. Never to check out library books again.

A whistle from across the room pulled Heather from her thoughts, moving over to where Merle stood, noting that he'd found the local history section. Kneeling down to look at the bottom row of books she grabbed one that looked almost homemade. Its spine was held together by coloured duct tape, folded in places making a pattern like viens.

Opening it Heather saw that it was, intact a typed local history of the town. It wasn't full of facts and information that Heather expected. This book gave names of families who lived in the town, what their careers were, where they lived and how they contributed. Flicking further through the pages she saw that some of the entries had been amended by hand, crossed out and added to. Apparently the Roder family moved from the town in 1998, and that was a big enough event to record for years to come. Deeper into the book the archives were printed out and stuck to pages, about three quarters of the way into the book the pages were blank.

While Heather had been engrossed in this, Merle had been useful. Grabbing a few map books of the local area, he'd already started to look elsewhere. Heather pushed the book back where she had found it, not sure if she was emotionally stable enough to find out all the history it held, and how there would no longer be any more entries. Glancing over to Merle she noted he was standing in front of the "Religious Studies" section, surprised, Heather left him to it, wandering the isles, occasionally stopping and browsing shelves. In the end they left with quite a haul, a few map books and one that seemed to mainly be about the local college which might come in useful. Merle had picked up a Bible, and a few books Heather didn't recognise. She left with some sci-fi novels she'd never heard of and a few classics she was sure she wouldn't get bored of.

Leaving the same way they came Merle exited first, practically vaulting himself through the window. Heather climbed onto the sill, jumping down through the gap and landing a lot more gracefully than she imagined.

Looking up she saw Merles stand practically screamed danger, he was half crouched with his gun pointing straight ahead of him. Heathers eyes followed the direction of the weapon and couldn't quite register what she saw.

Leaning on the hood of their van, twirling a knife in his hands stood a man. He was tall, black and slumped gracefully across the vehicle. Something about his stance looked posed. Like he wanted Heather and Merle to find him in this exact way, it hinted at theatrical.

"We finally meet." He smiled, revealing a blinding smile. His cheeks pushing at the bottoms of his eyes, they crinkled in a way that, had she not been so terrified, Heather would have found appealing.

Neither Merle or Heather said anything. The man still stood, knife spinning in his hands.

"You know, you'd think in an apocalypse y'all would be quieter." Still they said nothing, Merle had started to walk slowly forward, his gun still raised.

"I ain't gonna do nothing...how 'bout we put the weapons down and have a nice friendly chat?"

The words reminded Heather so much of her and Merle's first meeting, she still felt in danger, she reached behind her to the knife in her waistband.

"I'm Thomas." the man said, holding out his hand. 


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The two survivors stood and stared at the man's outstretched hand for what felt to Heather hours. The man didn't move, merely stood still staring, still with the confident smile on his face.

Merle made the first move, straightening up and getting closer. He wasn't as tall as the man, however Heather couldn't deny that Merle was terrifying. He stood straight, his wide chest puffed out, his eyes wild.

"What'chu mean nice to finally meet you?"

"I've been watching you, since you got into town, your lock up in the sports centre, you're little jaunt" he said nodding at Merle "You weren't hard to miss."

Heather stayed quiet as she got closer, ready to back Merle up if he needed trouble. If Merle hadn't seen this guy, he hadn't wanted to be seen, why not?

"Look man, we ain't here to cause trouble, but if you are, we'll win."

The man laughed, a sound that sounded so forced Heather winced.

"I'm not trying to make trouble...trying to make friends at a stretch."

At this it was Heathers turn to laugh.

"Making friends by spying on us for days?" Merle held out his hand to silence Heather, she ignored it "I know this isn't exactly a normal situation but that's not how you make friends."

At this he stopped twirling the knife in his hands, shoved it into a side pocket in his backpack and made to move forward. Merle jumped up, his knife now in his hand in a flash. Grabbing Thomas Merles stump was around his neck with his knife dangerously close to the man's stomach.

"Merle!"

"Ah, Merle is it? Suits you."

"Look Nigga, I ain't about to play nice if you keep acting like a smart ass."

"Merle?! Seriously!" Heather hadn't seen Merle act like this, it upset her that it wasn't much of a shock. His language so far had been degrading to women, rude and at best foul.

"Sugar stay outta this."

"No Merle let him go, so he's watched us? Would we do anything different?"

Thomas flashed her a smile which she ignored, she wasn't about to erect the welcoming banners in his honour.

Merle was now glaring at Heather, his grip still as tight on Thomas' neck. Heather's eyes pleaded with him, trying to make him see sense. The last thing she wanted was a living persons death on her conscience. The moment dragged on forever, Heather tried to move closer still staring Merle in the eyes. Finally Merle let Thomas go, not blinking before he swapped his knife for his gun and aimed it straight at the man's temple.

They stood, breathing heavily, all looking from one to another without saying a word.

"Why were you watching us?" Heather decided to be civil.

"I was assessing the situation, when I saw you headin' for the library I thought you must either be pretty smart or pretty dumb, either one I could handle."

"Where have you been hiding?"

"In the college, I heard you driving through, the town is pretty quiet you can hear leaves fallin' if you try."

Without thinking Heather fell into normal conversation "Yeah, what's that about? Where is everyone?"

"What...you mean you don't know?!"

Heather and Merle exchanged a meaningful look, Thomas knew something they didn't. Studying the look between the two Thomas started laughing, this one felt genuine.

"You've been here for what, almost a week? Aren't you a little bit interested to find out why there isn't anyone here? Like anyone?"

"Small town, figures it would be pretty empty." Merle defended himself.

"Pretty empty, I'm the only living person you've seen here. Hell I bet you've hardly seen any dead?"

"Look, just tell us." Heather was getting impatient. The man was so confident, so at ease and casual. He stood straight now, she had to look up to look at his face, trying to match his courage.

"How 'bout I show you." His smile wider on his face.

They sat in the van in silence, Merle looked miserable. It had taken a lot of convincing from Heather to let Thomas in the van. Heather even resorted to pleading, appealing to what she hoped was Merles deeply hidden good nature. Now the quiet was only broken by Thomas giving directions to wherever they were going. Heather was nervous, this wasn't what she had expected from their 'quick trip' to the library. Walkers she could get her head around, this was something else.

The town was so small it took minutes before Thomas was telling them to pull up outside a huge building, with white pillars, a domed roof and steps leading up to massive front doors. Heather assumed this was the college that Thomas said he'd been staying in. It explained why they had a whole book written on it, it was impressive.

"A church?" Merle said. Church? This looked nothing like the churches Heather knew, all ancient buildings with spires and stain glass windows.

"Wait till you see inside." Thomas let himself out of the van, sauntering over to the front doors, not even holding out a weapon.

Merle grunted "Look, I dunno what you've got us into sugar, but if he fucks us over, its everyman for himself."

"Fine with me." Merles words were harsh, but Heather understood, they were hardly the best matched couple.

They both jumped out of the van, rushing to catch up with Thomas who was now at the churches doors.

"You ready? Might wanna cover your noses." He said, pushing open the big doors.

Heather wasn't ready for what she saw. Bodies were everywhere, covering the rows of pews, on the platform at the other end of the building. The smell was overwhelming, it filled Heathers head and was so strong seemed to effect her vision. She swayed on the spot, not ready to move any further inwards. Taking a look at Merle, his face was stone, Heather assumed this was as shocked as he got. Finally the smell got the better of her, turning around and running down the steps Heather bent over, emptying her stomach of its meager contents. She could head Thomas laughing as she heaved again, stomach already empty. She stood straight and could hear Merle threatening Thomas.

Using her hood to cover her nose and mouth she walked up the stairs again. Meeting Merles gaze at the top of them he nodded at her, a silent check to see if she was alright, she nodded back.

Thomas was inside the church now, stepping over bodies, churning Heathers stomach further.

"How many?" Heather choked out.

"A few hundred, maybe closer to five-hundred." The room just didn't seem big enough, but as Heather inched further closer she saw it expanded to each side, revealing more gruesome sights.

"God...is this the whole town?!"

"I don't think so, I bet a lot of people fled, if everyone you knew was planning a mass suicide I doubt you'd stick around." Heather couldn't believe how indifferent Thomas sounded.

"Why don't it attract the Walkers?" Merle always asked the practical questions.

"Could you smell it?"

"I thought they had like...super senses or summit?"

"There have been a few, guess it was a quiet town before all this anyway."

Heather had had enough, turning around she practically ran to the van, leaning on it for support she saw again the bloody scene in the church. Images of bodies slumped over each other, all with neat wounds in the centre of their foreheads.

She overheard Merle and Thomas.

"Is she gonna be alright?"

"Dunno, ain't seen nothin' like it."

"Why'd they shoot themselves? Kool-aid not dramatic enough?"

"Maybe they wanted to make sure, can't be too careful these days."

They were walking towards her now, not talking. Merle was staring straight at her, determined to make eye contact that Heather wouldn't give. Thomas strolled rather than walked, arms swinging casually at his sides as if he hadn't just seen the massacre in the church.

They all stood around the van, Merle still staring at Heather while her body tried to rid itself of sustenance it didn't have. No one said anything, Heather lifter her head to meet Merles gaze, giving him a quick nod again to let him know she was alright.

"So what do we do now?" Thomas asked, smiling at the two survivors.

Another look passed between Merle and Heather, this one more incredulous than pleading.

"We?" Heather couldn't believe him, before she could say more Merle stepped in.

"Look Mr. T" Heather gave Merle a sharp look "We ain't about to group together n' form the A-Team..."

"I reckon you'd make a good Murdock" he said looking at Merle, turning his gaze to Heather his smiled widened "Obviously the Face."

Heather glared but didn't say anything, sure that anything she said would be met with more sarcasm.

"You're pushin it."

"What you don't think she's charming enough?"

Merle made a move to grab Thomas which he quickly dodged, hand going to the knife in his backpack.

"This is hardly helping! Why don't we...why not just..." She was interrupted by Merle.

"He don't wanna talk sugar, he's leaving."

"Not to sound childish, but I was here first." Merle swore under his breath, "Look I don't know 'bout you but I'm knackered, why don't we got back to the college. I've got a bag of M&M's I've been savin' for a special occasion."

Heathers mind was racing, she couldn't work Thomas out. He had a personality more inline with someone who'd just been told he'd won the lottery, he was practically bouncing on his heels as she watched him.

"Why?" Merles tone was harsh and hard.

"You don't like M&M's?" Before Merle could even answer Thomas held up his hands, the sardonic look gone from his face "Alright, alright...I haven't seen anyone in weeks. I just wanted to know whats goin' on...y'know."

Heather was a pushover, she knew this look. This must have been what Merle saw when he found her. Lost of human contact and unsure of anything outside of survival. Sighing she glanced at Merle. He was shaking his head as if he could read her thoughts, looking at him imploringly his face turned to Thomas.

"Got any whiskey?"

Thomas just smiled making his way to the van, the bounce visibly back in his step. Moving towards the van herself she felt Merles hand on her shoulder.

"Remember what I said sugar."

"Yeah, yeah everyman for himself and all that bullshit." Heather couldn't help herself, she smiled at Merle and carried on towards the van, not before seeing Merles lips turn ever so slightly at the corners.

In the van the mood was different to on their way to the church, Thomas was pointing out buildings, saying what they used to be, what he'd scavenged from each house.

"That one there" he said pointing at a quaint building, white fences and a veranda over the front porch "Had more scented candles than bed bath and beyond...hundreds. I'm quite partial to the fresh grass one."

Merle was silent as they drove, robotically following Thomas' directions.

"I don't actually know your name," Thomas said turning towards Heather "It's just this road here, on the left...it can't actually be English, or Sugar come to that."

"Heather..." They pulled up at what must have been the college before she could get a response. This building was higher than any other in the town, three or four stories high with a huge clock tower on one corner. Red brick and high windows made it an impressive structure.

They all exited the van, Thomas walking past them both onto the front steps, holding his arms out either side of him, welcoming them.

Looking behind her Merle started at the man on the college steps, shaking his head a muttering something under his breath.

"Come on Merle...what's the worst that could happen?" Heather smirked at him, this time she didn't have to search for the smile as she heard him laugh loudly behind her.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The college was ransacked, for some reason Heather had imagined it as untouched as the rest of the town looked. The corridor Thomas led them down was dark, the floor covered in rubbish and paper everywhere. Heather silently wondered how long Thomas had been here, and why he hadn't cleared the place. They walked through some doors that lead to what Heather guessed used to be a study hall/library. The bottom floor of the room had tables and chairs which still seemed to be in their original layout, a staircase led to a platform which overlooked the space, looking up Heather could see that books lined the walls. Heather smiled at Merle, trying to reassure him, Merle however was looking around himself, suspicious of everything as always.

"You're tellin' me you're the only one here...with all this room?"

"What can I say? I like my space." Thomas carried on down the corridor, not looking at his surroundings.

"Did you used to study here?" Heather asked, curiosity getting the better of her. Something about Thomas made her think he was still at college, maybe it was his unshakeable confidence, they must have been about the same age, give or take a few years.

"Nah, I went to MIT, used to live in Charlotte...had a girl who went here though."

"You came back for her?"

"Something like that..." he trailed off, Heather didn't push the subject and a quick look at Merle made sure he didn't either.

They carried on walking, through desolate hallways, which were gradually growing dark as the sun set outside the building. They finally came to stop in front of what Heather assumed was a classroom. Pushing open the door Thomas motioned for them to walk in first. Cautiously poking his head round the door Merle walked in leaving Heather to follow after him. Heather didn't know what she expected, but this wasn't it.

The classroom was as messy as the rest of the college had been, papers littered the floor and the room had dank musty smell. Looking at the textbooks piled high next to the doorway Heather assumed this used to be a biology classroom. Picking up the top book on a tower Heather was sure was about to topple she flicked through it, dust flying through the air as she did so. Something about this didn't seem right to Heather, Thomas was living here, if what he'd said was true. The room was filthy, no sign of order or supplies. In comparison to Merle and Heathers sofa and kitchenette seemed practically cozy.

Thomas had walked past Heather and Merle to the back of the room, he opened one of the cabinets lining the walls and rooted through it, pulling out the pack of M&M's he'd promised. Throwing the pack to Heather she caught it in one hand as Thomas opened more drawers.

Sitting down on one of the desks Merle put his feet up on another one, casually glancing around the room. Thomas had found what he was looking for, setting three dusty mis-matched glasses on the desk, pouring a dusky brown liquid into each one.

Merle grabbed it and cleared the glass in one swallow, banging it down harshly on the table.

"So Thomas? Glad to see you cleaned up for us."

Thomas laughed, another genuine one. "I'm not used to guests."

"How long have you been here?" Heather asked, willing to get the conversation going. She wanted to find out more about Thomas, sure there was a reason for all the chaos.

"About a month after the outbreak. Took me a while to get down here."

"Was she...were there a lot of walkers here?"

"A few...had to clear it."

"By yourself?"

"Nah, I had, my girl was still here, Tabby. Her and a couple of friends had holed up in one of the labs."

"Did she...?"

"I went on a run, tryin' to get some food. When I got back the doors were wide open. Nowhere to be seen."

Silence followed Thomas' story. Heather looked to Thomas, trying to see his face. He was staring straight out of the window, emotionless. She wondered if that's how people had to survive now, close themselves off of all emotion.

"What 'bout the walkers that got em?"

"Walkers?"

"Yah there must have been walkers, hell they must have been when you got back."

"No...no there was no one here. Nothing, everything looked like how I left it apart from..."

"So they coulda just left your skinny ass?"

"Merle!"

"What English? S'true! They coulda' just waltzed outta here."

There was that silence again, taking over the conversation saying more than anyone else needed to. Far from making Thomas sad or angry, there was that forced laughter, it made Heather feel worse than the silence before it.

"They could have...that's why I'm still here I guess. Hoping they'll come back."

Heather looked to Merle, who was in turn, looking at Thomas, both their faces unreadable. It wasn't long before the bottle of amber liquid was empty, Merle having finished off most of it. Thomas talked a lot, Heather was realising. He had a way of making stories last forever, detail was key. He was a student at MIT when all this broke out, studying Biomedical Sciences. He said it was chaos, but the only thing he cared about was getting back to his family. They lived in Charlotte, about a 15 hour drive from Massachusetts. He started by car, solo...battling the blocked highways and walkers. When he got home, two weeks later, now on foot, there was no one there. The City was practically overrun, he valiantly (Thomas' words) searched the town for his family. Battling walkers and spending a night locked in a removal van, he still found nothing. Another week or so on the road and he was in Oxford, banging down the doors to the college, sure that Tabitha was still alive.

"Been here ever since...what's it been now? Since it all went to shit? 3 months?"

"Eighty Five days." Merle...he'd been counting.

It was Merle's turn, his story was less detailed but more gorey. He regaled Thomas of when his group left him on the roof in Atlanta, sawing off his own hand and fighting his way through the city. At points in his story he looked towards Heather winking as he did. Then came their meeting, Merle described Heather in the water, the word siren barely passed his lips before Heather threw a well aimed M&M which bounced off his head. Heather was she was sure he'd only seen her dripping on the bank. Then came the walkers on the highway, he failed to mention the part where Heather saved his life.

There was a few moments of silence after Merle finished his story, which covered all the way up to Thomas finding them outside the Library. Heather caught up in her own thoughts didn't realise that the two men were staring at her. Expecting her to carry on tradition and tell her tale.

"Not much to tell...came over here to do Camp America, was at camp about 3 weeks before it all broke out...I think we got it a lot later than the Cities, we tried to hide in the cabins for weeks but supplies, they ran out fast...Me, Craig, Sarah and Tracy escaped with one of the kids, Daniel. Tracy and Dan got bit on the first night, attacked by a walker, one of the kids from camp. I think Tracy thought she was still alive...The next week, maybe it was longer than that, two weeks? Were a blur. We were sleeping in trees and surviving off the trail mix we snatched from camp. We were trying to find a way out of the woods when Sarah got bit. Craig, he slit his wrists two days later while I was asleep, he was supposed to be on watch. Must have got bit in the night or something as well. I woke up and he was...I had to kill him."

Merle was looking at her, surprised. He hadn't heard this story before, just the watered down version.

"I think we need to be headin' back sugar." Merle said after a stretch of silence.

"So soon? Don't wanna spend the night?"

"No. Heather, lets get going. Why don't you swing by the shop tomorrow?"

Thomas nodded as Heather got up out of her chair.

"Thanks for the M&M's...yeah."

They left without another word, Merle leading Heather through the abandoned corridors, perfectly remembering the route they had taken. Slipping out of the front doors it wasn't until they were in the van that Merle said anything.

"Well sugar, you sure know how to pick 'em."

"Fuck off Merle. Shouldn't I be driving? You polished off most of that whiskey."

"Be my guest!"

He stopped the van in the middle of the road, putting it into park and shuffling across the seat. Heather pushed open her door and ran round to the drivers side She'd driven a van at camp a few times and sure it couldn't be much different to this one. Pulling away she glanced at Merle who was practically laying across the rest of the seat, giving her an amused look.

"What?"

"Well...what do you think of our stalker?"

"I can't tell...he's...he's weird."

"Weird doesn't even cover it sugar...you've passed the road we need ta take."

"Whatever."

They drove the rest of the way home, not talking. Merle fell asleep, it was a five minute journey, if that.

Waking him up proved difficult, no amount of shaking seemed to work. In the end Heather decided a nice slap to the face might, which Merle obviously agreed with.

"What the fuck English?!"

"You wouldn't wake up." Simple, yet effective.

They wearily made their way to the building, pushing aside the plank they'd used to cover the gap between the floor and shutters Heather shimmied underneath. Cranking the shutters just high enough for Merle to duck under, she made sure they were securely down before following him up the stairs.

"So?" Merle said, throwing himself down on the sofa.

"What are we gonna do?" Merle just shrugged and made himself comfortable, it was obviously Heathers turn to take the floor tonight. Laying down Heather realised she didn't feel tired at all, the days events had left her already busy mind whirring.

"He doesn't seem dangerous at least?"

"You don't know that Sugar."

"Well he hasn't attacked us yet?"

"That I'll give him."

"He knows the town, as long as we stay here he could come in useful."

"That as well..." Merles eyes were shut and his speech had started to slur. His hands behind his head Heather could see him shifting his weight, getting comfortable.

"Maybe he's just like us Merle...trying to survive. I dunno, I think we should give him a chance?"

Merle didn't answer, looking over at him Heather saw that his mouth was slightly open and his chest was rising and falling rhythmically.

Getting up from her makeshift bed on the floor Heather moved towards the window, lifting the flap in the cardboard so she could see out. The sky was a watercolour of blues and greys, full of clouds making it seem so close to the ground. Looking over to where the college must be she saw nothing but random shapes of buildings. Unsure which one marked the place they'd spent the evening. Wondering if Thomas was asleep or still thinking about the two strangers he'd met that day she sighed letting the flap fall back into place. Laying back down in her sleeping bag images from the church haunted her when she closed her eyes. The idea that everyone there was so desperate, that they couldn't find a way to survive was almost as terrible as the scene itself. Rolling over onto her side she stared at Merle, his breathing heavier now he obviously had little trouble falling asleep. When Heather finally did manage to, she dreamt of Merle, holding a gun to her forehead as she silently nodded.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The next day came too fast, Heather felt as if the sleep she'd had was fitful at best, constantly being woken up by the sound of a trigger being pulled, Merles grim face behind the gun. Finally pulling herself up from the sleeping bag, she saw Merle crouched over the camping stove, the smell of coffee hitting her before anything else.

"Sleep well sugar?"

"Not really..."

"Shoulda got wasted like me...slept like a baby."

"Is that coffee ready?" Heather asked, ignoring Merle completely.

"Almost..."

"Merle, about Thomas. What do you think we should do?"

"I dunno English...I was thinkin', if he's been watchin' us. He saw me leave ya. He knew you was on your own."

"And he didn't do anything."

Merle nodded in response.

"Maybe we can trust him?"

"I wouldn't go that far Sugar."

They sat in comfortable silence, something Heather realised they were doing a lot of lately. The morning felt impossibly calm compared to yesterday, they drank their coffee together, discussing what their next move would be. Later in the day Merle was downstairs, banging about while Heather cleaned the staff room, with nothing else to do she thought she'd make herself useful.

Having no idea what time it was, or what at all to expect from Thomas, it came as a surprise to Heather when there was a rattling outside which sounded like the shutters. Putting down the marker she'd been using to draw more of their map Heather ran down the stairs, Merle was already winding the shutters up. They were almost all the way up before Thomas could duck under them, his tall frame almost hitting the top of the door.

He stood staring around at the store, the same confident smile on his face that he'd had yesterday. Merle wound the shutters down and walked off, not saying a word.

"Morning." Heather said, meekly, unsure what the correct way to act in this type of situation was.

"Morning Heather! Nice place you've got here."

Heather shook her head, still not sure what to think of him. She turned around walked towards the back of the store.

"Come on then...better get you upstairs."

Thomas looked around himself in glee, everything on the shop floor amazed him somehow. When they finally got to the staff room Heather was already getting annoyed at his endless questions. Walking over to the window she leant against the cardboard covered glass while Merle was shuffling around in their office come storage area. Thomas casually threw himself on the sofa, feet up on one side.

"This IS cozy," he approved, looking round the room fondly. "Can see why you rushed home last night."

Merle barged into the room, three bottles of water clutched to his chest. He threw one at Heather who didn't manage to catch it, noisily clattering to the floor as Merle laughed. Thomas caught his one.

"So..."

"Less of the small talk." Merles mood had changed in and instant, he'd grabbed one of the chairs and was sitting on it, interrogation style, stump resting on the back of the chair, almost pointing at Thomas "What is it you want?"

"I don't want anything, look...there was another reason I came to Oxford."

Merles laughter wasn't aimed at Thomas, he was glaring at Heather, I told you so written across his face.

"What do you mean?" Heather walked over now, sitting on a chair next to Merle, wanting to see Thomas' face as he spoke.

"Me and Tabby, we both studied Biology right?" Thomas looked at his audience, almost as if expecting a epiphany moment.

"Tabby...she was smart, like super smart. She coulda gone to MIT but didn't have the money and couldn't get a scholarship...I was so sure she knew somethin' about all this, why it had happened, what it was, maybe even a cure. She was like fucking Robert Koch." Silence followed his outburst as Heather just shrugged at Merles puzzled face. "He was a scientist..I'm sayin' if anyone knew, it would have been her. She was gonna start an internship at the CDC near Atlanta..."

This Merle and Heather could understand.

"So...did she know?"

"No, they were still researching, going through old text books and papers when I got there. That's the only reason we stayed. They thought it might be airborne, but then we might all be infected. Tabby even wanted to catch one, try and experiment but..."

"How far is the CDC from here?"

"About an hour? I'm not sure. I went there while at MIT, it's near the City, probably overrun by now. We talked about going there, sure, but it just seemed too dangerous."

"What do you think Merle?" Heather knew their original idea was to head to the Army base, but if anywhere had answers this could be it.

"He's right, City's overrun..."

"You not planning on staying here?"

"Ain't got nothin' to do with you."

"Just asking...just asking." Thomas said defensively, holding his hands up, palms showing.

"Merle, can I talk to you...privately."

Merle nodded, kicking the chair towards Thomas aggressively as he walked into the office. Closing the door behind her she gave Thomas a nod before shutting it.

"Merle don't you think," he cut her off mid sentence.

"We don't need him."

"To do what? What's the plan? It was to go to Fort Benning? But now?"

"Whatever we do sugar, we don't know him and we don't need him."

"You said yourself he could have attacked me and didn't. He hasn't shown any signs of being dangerous. If we're staying round here why not just."

"No."

"You're being unreasonable."

"Unreasonable?! Fucking hell girly you wanna get killed?"

"I teamed up with you didn't I? It's not like we have much choice, I don't think he's going anywhere."

Merle grabbed her shoulder with his hand, resting his stump on the other one, forcing Heather to look at him. Merle was serious, his mouth set in a grim line as he looked Heather in the eyes.

"You sure?" This shocked Heather, she was sure Merle was putting his foot down, closing off any of her opinions on the matter.

She nodded, Merles expression didn't change, still grim, he sighed and removed his weight from her shoulders, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

"I dunno why I'm even stickin' round English, not like I'm getting any."

Heather breathed a sigh of relief as Merle laughed at his own joke, once more barging through the door practically letting it swing shut in Heathers face.

"So, for whatever reason you've won over our resident blonde bombshell." Thomas' smile was wide as he looked from Heather to Merle. "Now we ain't about to give ya the key but..."

The day stretched on like that, Merle giving and inch and Thomas taking it gladly. They sat and discussed plans, Thomas' original plan, which included Tabby, was to find out what it was, find a cure and head for the CDC. Merle told him that they were headed for Fort Benning, Oxford was just a rest stop. Thomas seemed to approve of their game plan. He marvelled at their table map, adding to it and even suggested that to map the whole town the wall would be a better canvas. Before they knew it the sky outside was dark, and Thomas was rubbing his growling belly. They sat around and ate noodles as Thomas artistically mapped what must have been half the town on the wall opposite the window. He included the church which he put a big cross through, all the way to the college and a few dozen surrounding streets. Merle looked impressed.

When it was finally time to settle down Merle didn't make Thomas leave, he did however force Heather to take the sofa while he slept on the floor between Heather and Thomas, a mean look on his face before he fell asleep.

The next few days were full of town tours, guided by Thomas' expertise. They found a house occupied with a family of walkers down a street Thomas hadn't got to yet. Merle efficiently dispatched the four walkers and they search the house, finding nothing else of interest. They worked well as a team, Thomas was smart, Heather rightfully cautious and Merle was the muscle. Days turned into weeks and they had a good thing going on. They had supplies, and a relatively safe place to stay. On one day Heather woke up to groaning, running to the windows she saw walkers surrounding the building. Waking up Merle and Thomas they discussed the most efficient plan.

"We wait them out." Thomas was sure they wouldn't stay long. "We have supplies long enough to last us weeks."

"Not sure, if you noticed, but there ain't much to distract 'em round here. We're the only thing they can smell for miles."

"Merle's right, they won't leave us alone until something better comes along."

"So what do you suggest we do about it?" Heather hadn't actually seen Thomas kill a walker, whenever they had come across them it had been Merle, and even Heather doing the dirty work.

"We fight, open the side door n let em in a few at a time."

"That shit only works in computer games."

"What about the shutter?" Heather asked.

"What about it?"

"Couldn't we raise it up a foot or so, so they can only just get under it, bring it back down so they're stuck under it and..."

"That's fucking insane!" Thomas looked sickened.

"That's fucking genius sugar!" Merle looked impressed.

Merle and Heather got to work, Thomas eventually agreed to take part and was given the crucial (accord to Merle) job of winding the shutter up and down. Heather and Merle stood side by side, knives at the ready, Merle had yet again given Heather a gun as backup which was safely tucked in the back of her jeans where she was sure it would stay.

The noise of the shutters was deafening, there must have been more than twenty walkers now pounding on it, made more ferocious by the three fresh meals behind the doors.

"Musta been a herd from the highway."

"How'd they find their way down here?" Heather felt nervous as Merle just shrugged off her question.

"Ready?" Thomas called from the side of the store.

"When you are!"

The sound of the shutters shocked Heather into action, moving slightly further away from Merle she place her feet far apart, her knife out ready to strike. First all they saw were shuffling feet, still trying to claw their way through the shutters. However one Walker had noticed, their body slumped down to the level Thomas had pulled the shutter to, it awkwardly got on its knees, hands splayed out in front of itself, fingers reaching the shop floor. Two more Walkers had now caught on to what was happening, their heads now low to the ground.

"Now!" Shouted Merle, at this Thomas instantly started bringing the shutter down as more Walkers struggled to get underneath.

The shutter had started to press the bodies close to the floor, screeching loudly as it struggled to meet the ground. The walkers however were still pulling themselves through, their bodies some how strong enough to push the shutters up. Thomas still cranked and managed to stop some of them struggling, without signal both Merle and Heather attacked. Heather pulled her arm up, knife aimed downwards and plunged it into one of the Walkers heads. Blood flew everywhere as she pulled it out again, satisfied that it had stopped moving. Merle had already killed two of the walkers, one was practically decapitated. Heather struck the next one sharply with the heel of her boot as its arms struggled to grab hold of her and Merle quickly dealt with it. stabbing his knife deep into the Walkers head.

Heavy breathing filled the shop floor, Heather looked to Merle who was standing triumphant. Her eyes then found Thomas, who looked in all honestly like she had the day he showed them the church.

"Ready for round two Sugar?"

It took 7 rounds, 8 if you count the time Thomas was so terrified he pulled the shutters down before any walkers could actually get under the shutter at all, he did however manage to slice one set of Walker fingers off which Merle angrily kicked towards him, shouting slurs as he did.

It didn't all go as smoothly as the first time, at one point the walkers pushed so hard on the shutters that they started to lift, the lever spinning out of Thomas' hand. Heather grabbed the edge of the shutter, pulling it down with all her strength as Merle kicked each walker back, all with little effect. The shutter was almost pushing inwards with the force of the bodies behind, threatening to collapse in on itself. Finally with Heather and Merle pulling the shutter down, pushing bodies out of its way and Thomas with both hands on the lever they managed to slowly bring it down, crushing one walkers spine with a sickening noise as they did. The edge of the shutters had cut through part of its torso. The Walker used his hands to try and shimmy along the floor, still half connected to the bottom of his body, trailing intestines across the tiles. Merle, taking his time knelt down next to the Walker as it turned his head, jaws snapping wildly. Heather took the opportunity to plunge her knife deep into his head ending whatever Merle had intended to play out. He looked disappointed whereas Thomas just looked thankful.

When the noise outside the shop had finally stopped the three survivors stood, staring at the mess of bodies, some still halfway under the shutter.

"I dunno 'bout you, but I could do with a smoke and some whiskey." Covered in sweat and blood, Merle merely waltzed to the back of the store without looking round.

Heather looked up at Thomas, his hand still hanging limply off the lever. He looked her straight in the eye, attempted a casual smile and was promptly sick.


	10. Chapter 10

Hi guys! So I cannot believe the reaction this getting already. Thanks for all the reviews they honestly push me to write even more. This is my first fic so the fact y'all being so nice is amazing.

Just a quick update on how the timeline correlates to the group. When Merle and Heather were at the college and Merle said it had been 85 days since the outbreak I think that's around the time season 2 ended? So the group should have then been on the highway after being pushed off the farm by the horde.

Let me know if there is anything I can do to make the story appeal more? I have a rough outline of where this is going but obviously change it every time I sit down and write.

Also! I know Merle is waaaaaaay AU and much nicer than he would be. I'm working on making him more...Merlish, bare with me.

Thanks again for the reviews and follows!

x

Chapter 10

Heather had woken up to find Merle gone, his sleeping bag still in its usual place. Assuming he was downstairs sorting supplies Heather continued her morning routine, stretching out from the night before she happily starred out of the window, noting how the low winter sun bounced off of windows around the mornings and evenings getting colder now, Heather planned in her mind practical clothing they'd need for the colder weather.

When Heather finally found Merle he was unconscious, she panicked, she assumed he'd somehow been bitten. Practically ripping his shirt she checked for bites, scouring his body she found nothing. Heather was getting hysterical now, tears filled her eyes as she shook Merle's lifeless body. Thomas stood by, watching, saying nothing (for once).

Five minutes and he still hadn't regained consciousness. Thomas had finally reasoned with Heather that for Merle to have been bitten he would have marks, and there would have had to have been a Walker, which there wasn't. This didn't help, Heather sat with Merles head in her lap, hardly listening to Thomas' rational words.

Realising he wasn't getting anywhere trying to calm Heather down Thomas started to look through the boxes Merle had been sorting, attempting to get out of Heathers way. Two minutes later he was calling Heather over, his voice shaking, holding something in his hands.

He held a small ziplock bag filled with pill bottles.

"No..." She couldn't comprehend what this meant. Looking from the bag to Merles unconscious form she just shook her head unwilling to believe what was obviously true. Thomas made several noises as if he was about to say something, but words seemed to fail him.

"What do we do? How do we save him?" Grabbing the bag from Thomas she started looking at all the pill bottles, unsure of what any of them were.

"I don't know...I don't know."

"You're the fucking biology expert come on."

"Is he breathing?"

Heather rushed over to check, he had been before they discovered the drugs but it was feint, his chest hardly even rising and falling.

Holding her fingers to his neck she struggled to find a pulse, her own breathing becoming quick and heavy, tears still streaming down her face. Thomas pushed her aside, placing his steady fingers on Merles neck. The silence dragged as Heather sat, crumpled, unable to look away.

"It's there, he has a pulse, he's still alive." Letting out a long breath Heather sat still.

"What do we do?" she asked again. Thomas didn't answer, was still just starring at Merle. He got up and started pacing, face still stoic, hands still steady.

"We should leave him." He finally said, back to Heather facing the boarded up door.

"What?!"

"He's a fucking druggie Heather, hes a volatile, racist, sexist nut job...we should just leave him here."

Still on the floor a foot away from Merle's body Heather looked up at Thomas. His long frame loomed over her but he still wouldn't face her.

"Get out."

"What?"

"I said get the fuck out."

"Heather, c'mon...how did you not see this sooner? He's been high on God knows what every day. He's violent, has these fucking crazy highs and lows."

"You knew?" Heather's voice was low, now looking at the man staring straight at her, pleading.

"How did you not?"

Heather racked her brains, there were times Merles behaviour had been unpredictable sure, he flew off at the smallest things especially with Thomas. He was wild and uncontrollable, never caring if he interrupted someone to say whatever was on his mind. Heather had somehow convinced herself that this was just Merle. She had thought his behaviour might even be a reaction to the apocalypse and losing his brother.

"You're so fucking niave. Just because he's saved your life a handful of times..."

"It's not about that."

"Then what is it about? You in love with him?"

"Fuck off."

"You're pathetic. The first guy that comes along and you're smitten."

"Fuck off."

They were shouting now, where they were forgotten. She'd never seen Thomas like this. The whole time she'd known him he'd be calm, confident and hopeful. Heather stood up now and was inches away from Thomas, not caring that the top of her head was only grazing his shoulders.

"You're the one that's pathetic. Have you ever even killed a walker? Sure you did in your detailed description of your cross country heroism...but actually? Or was that just a nice fictional story to get us on side?"

Thomas didn't say anything, they were practically circling each other now, ready to fight like boxers in a ring.

"Is that why Tabby left? You too much of a fucking pussy to even survive. If I'm pathetic what does that make you?" Heather had hit the mark, Thomas' once so confident face was full of fear.

"Get out." Heather was walking towards the door that led to the shop floor when she heard it. A groaning that struck fear in her. Turning around she looked for the walker knife already in her hand from her waistband, seeing nothing. The noise was coming from Merle. His breathing labored, eyes still closed.

Thomas forgotten Heather ran towards him, skidding on her knees as she got to the ground.

"Merle...Merle...c'mon Merle." Grabbing his torso she put her ear to his chest shaking him.

His breathing got heavier, as Heather continued to hold him.

"We need to move him...get him upstairs."

She expected Thomas to argue or to leave. Instead he didn't hesitate, moving to stand over Merles head he grabbed him under his armpits heaving him upwards and Heather took his legs. It was a struggle to get him up the stairs, Merle was heavier with each step. Finally they reached the door, Thomas kicked it in behind him as Heather silently steered him towards the room they used for storage.

Placing him carefully on the ground Heather quickly put his body in what she thought was the recovery position, they had taught her at the beginning of camp, shaking her head she again wished she'd listened properly.

Sitting vigil next to his body, she could see his chest rising and falling more steadily than before. Ignoring Thomas standing behind her she sat and waited for any other sign of life.

It was another hour before Merle regained consciousness properly. His breathing had become steadier while Heather watched and finally his eyes snapped open. He coughed violently, attempting to sit up and steady himself with his arm.

"Careful there..." Heather held out a hand to his chest, steadying him as he struggled to sit up.

"Mornin' Sugar."

A disbelieving snort came from behind her, ignoring it she simply glared at Merle.

"Seriously Merle?" she sat over him ready to grab him as he propped himself up.

"I miss somethin'?"

"Drugs Merle? What? The dead coming back to life not exciting enough for you?"

"Now Sugar..."

"No! I don't want your fucking excuses Merle. You've been using this whole time?" She didn't give him the time to answer, she didn't need it "We were looking out for each other. You could have got me killed."

She wasn't crying anymore, tears still made tracks down her face but she starred Merle down, daring him to use any excuse he could.

"It doesn't matter anymore."

"What you do?" His voice still croaky, he was propping himself up now.

"I got rid of them, you're whole stash of pills."

In a flash Merle was on her, face red, swearing and screaming. He kicked a box, water bottles spilling across the floor. Thomas was in between them quickly, hands out to either side protecting Heather. There was a silent standoff as Merle stood breathing heavily. Pushing Thomas out of the way, glaring at him as she did so Heather stood in Merle's line of fire.

"No, let him."

Merle didn't do anything, just stood nostrils flared looking like a wild animal.

"Heather, c'mon he's fucking crazy."

Turning to Thomas she sneered. "I thought I asked you to leave."

"What's this? Trouble in paradise?" Merle didn't miss a beat.

She ignored him, still staring at Thomas.

"You've got to be kidding? And leave you here with him? He's a druggie Heather."

"Get out." Grabbing his arm and pushing him toward the door she was surprised at what little resistance Thomas put up. Maybe he was as shocked at Heather as she was herself. Hardly having to put pressure on his arm she let hers fall to her side as she walked ahead of him down the stairs.

"Heather...this is crazy. You're not safe."

They could hear Merle coughing loudly upstairs.

She didn't answer, merely kept walking across the shop and started cranking the shutters up.

"Heather..."

"You wanted to leave him. Now's your chance."

He didn't reply. She didn't look at him, scared that his face would break her resolve. The shutter was all the way up before Thomas made a move, taking her eyes off her he walked out onto the street outside. Barely leaving the store before Heather started bringing the shutters back down. He turned to look at her, standing outside starring in. When the shutter was all the way down Heather turned and walked to the back room, not turning round.

Back in the staff room Merle was stretched out on the sofa, water bottle in hand with a few empty ones on the floor in front of him.

"That stuff isn't limitless you know."

"Look, Sugar..."

"Heather will do just fine." She had never minded the nicknames before, even thought of them as playful banter. Now they just felt insulting.

"Heather," the name sounded foreign in Merles mouth "you were never in danger. I functioned fine."

"Fine? So what if you were on watch when it was just us two? Decided to get high and overdosed. Would you have been functioning just fine when Walkers attacked?"

"I managed just fine before, you never even fucking knew."

"I was an idiot...I hardly call it managing Merle."

"You're going to get clean. Then we're heading for Fort Benning."

He snorted "Getting clean? This ain't AA, not about to introduce myself to the group."

It was Heathers turn to laugh "Group! Not sure if you noticed Merle but there isn't any group. You left yours probably high on God knows. I'm starting to understand why you were handcuffed to the roof."

Heather left him there, resting on the sofa. Knowing if she spent anymore time around Merle she would more than likely punch him. The rest of the afternoon she spent sorting the office out, cleaning up from Merles tantrum.

They didn't speak until later that evening, over noodles that Heather had made them.

"So why'd you give twinkle toes the boot?"

"It doesn't matter, he's gone." She wasn't about to give Merle the satisfaction of exactly why Thomas left.

"He comin' back?"

"I don't know."

They lapsed again into silence, Heather flicking through one of the sci-fi novels she'd taken from the library, not really reading any of it. Stretching out on the floor she kept reading, trying to get lost in the fantasy.

"He's outside." She hadn't even heard Merle get up, he was at the window, lifting the flap of the cardboard.

"Leave him Merle."

"What'd he do that was so wrong huh?"

"What does it matter? You were hardly his biggest fan before."

"Just seems a bit..."

"A bit what?"

"Just a bit unlike you Heather."

"Yeah well we obviously all have our secrets..."

They went to bed that night in silence. Heather lay, head straight back starring at the ceiling, listening to Merle's uneven breathing.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The next few weeks were easier than Heather thought, she had assumed making Merle go 'cold turkey' would have been impossible. In contrast Merle had been easier to be around, he was helpful and seemed to want to genuinely kick the drugs.

"Why don't I teach ya how to use the bow?" It had been almost a week since Heather had found him unconscious.

"Seriously?"

"No point in havin' it if ya can't use it."

"And you know how to?"

"Reckon I can teach ya."

It wasn't easy, her first few attempts had been dire. The arrows falling to the ground at her feet no matter how hard she followed Merle's instructions.

"Why'd ya even grab it?"

"I don't know...it seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Hmmm..."

It wasn't until the third day of Merles lessons that Heather actually managed to get an arrow to pierce the makeshift target Merle had set up. Her arms had started getting used to pulling the string back, something she didn't even realise she would struggle motion started to feel normal, more fluid. She would still need a lot more practice, and a lot more arrows. Heather however looked so pleased with herself that Merle couldn't help but smile.

"Good work English!"

They carried on like that for some time, Merle giving her lessons in all types of survival. How to hotwire a car, skin an animal (Heather was reluctant) and again told her how to use a sometimes scared Heather, how much Merle knew about this kind of stuff, however she kicked herself for thinking like that, knowing it was Merles survival skills that were keeping her alive.

Over this time Thomas had appeared now and again, at first Heather had told him to leave, that in no uncertain terms he wasn't welcome. After this is took to watching them from a distance, always a road ahead of behind them.

"Fuckin' freak." Merle muttered under his breath as they walked back into the shop, bringing the shutters down as Thomas watched them from across the car park. Merle still didn't know why Heather made Thomas leave, although she was sure he had an idea.

On the third week of Merle being drug free he started to change, one day in particular was bad. Heather was up before Merle, which was in itself an anomaly. They had run out of gas a week ago, making a fire pit in the warehouse downstairs. Stretching her legs on each step she attempted to get a fire ready, knowing Merle would soon be up and criticizing her approach. A good ten minutes of blowing on the embers, trying to get the fire to catch and Heather gave up. Throwing the box of matches aside, dragging herself upstairs dreading having to ask Merle to help.

When she pushed open the door she was surprised to see Merle up, sitting on the sofa, head down, staring at the floor between his feet.

"Merle...I can't get the fire started."

"Hmm?"

"I can't start the fire."

He didn't answer, just made a vague noise that he'd heard her. This carried on all day, he eventually got up to help but was slow and unresponsive. He even failed to make a vulgar comment when Heather accidentally poured water down herself causing her already threadbare t-shirt to turn see-through. Leaving him to it Heather busied herself, they planned to leave in a weeks time and that meant gathering everything they would need for the journey ahead.

Days went by and she had no real conversation from Merle, his apparent personality change had thrown Heather, so used to his crude, self-assured nature, the new Merle hardly spoke, especially if Heather didn't initiate the conversation.

"Merle...are you alright?"

"What's that Sugar?"

"Are you okay? Only...it's been...quiet lately."

"I'm fine."

That was it, until later that night. Heather was upstairs, scouring over the maps Merle had planned their route on, making sure there were multiple roads they could take incase of traffic jams or hordes. The usual stillness was interrupted by crashing boxes down stairs, and swearing from Merle. Making her way cautiously down Heather saw him throwing the contents of a first aid box Heather had made up behind him as he rifled through it.

"Merle?"

He turned on her, face full of fury, breathing heavily.

"Where have you put 'em?"

"Put what?"

"You know what."

"I threw them Merle, before you even woke up, weeks ago."

"I fuckin' need it."

"Merle come on...you've been doing so well."

He rounded on her, coming close to her face as she was backed into a wall.

"I need it."

"You're better than this Merle."

"NO I AIN'T, YOU DON'T KNOW THE FIRST FUCKIN' THING ABOUT ME." He was screaming now, voice so loud it cracked at points. Heather swallowed, trying to think of anything that would calm him down. Before she could say anything Merle raised his fist, hand curled so tight his knuckles were going white.

Before he let his arm swing his eyes made contact with hers, whatever he saw there stopped him in his tracks. His arm fell limply by his side, now unable to look at Heather at all. He turned quickly, making his way towards the door that lead to the shop floor.

"Merle?" He didn't turn round, his pace quickened as Heather tried to catch up with him.

They were almost at the front of the shop when she did, her hand on his shoulder as he reached for the lever.

"Let go Heather."

"No Merle. You aren't leaving."

"You ain't safe with me here."

She scoffed "Merle, I wasn't safe before I found you."

"I almost...you ain't safe."

"Look at me Merle." He wouldn't "We're in this together. You can't just leave."

He didn't reply, but the grip he had on the lever loosened.

"We've got so far, why give up now?"

"You're better off without me."

She laughed again "Look Merle, I know you and me aren't the best matched...we fight constantly, you're a nightmare to live with."

"I thought you were tryin' to get me to stay?"

"I'm getting to that. Before you found me...at the lake. I didn't think I could carry on. I didn't want to."

There was no smart answer, his hand fell from the lever to his side, Merle looked, for once in his life, like he didn't know what to say.

"You saved me Merle, not only from Walkers countless times, but from everything."

He finally turned round to look at her, all anger from his face gone. "Ya gotta promise me somethin then English." His eyes found hers and he looked deadly serious "Never give up."

Heather smiled, forgetting herself she closed the short distance between them and threw her arms round Merles neck, pulling him forwards and putting her head on his chest, she could feel tears welling up in her eyes.

"Promise Sugar."

"I promise."

"Good, now get the fuck off."

Laughing as she pulled away, wiping the tears from her face with the back of her hand. Merle was already wandering across the store, his step already looking a little lighter than before.

There were times over the next few days where Merles mood darkened, but a quick smile from Heather or a nudge in the ribs tended to clear the air. On the morning they intended to leave Merle was up before Heather, as she woke she could hear him singing downstairs, smiling to herself Heather was glad he was in good spirits.

It took a while to get the van loaded, Merle was adamant over the boxes, making sure they were in a certain order, telling Heather that it was between life and death. Heather just nodded along and followed what he said, knowing that he was probably right anyway.

"Oi oi loverboy!" Heather was in the van, pushing one of their boxes of bottled water into place, heading to the back of the van Heather was positive she knew who Merle was talking to. Sure enough there stood Thomas, looking even thinner than when Heather had last seen him. His eyes were sunken and dark circles surrounded them, making him look as if he'd aged ten years in a month. His face, especially looked gaunt, his cheekbones more prominent than before.

"You guys leaving?" his voice even sounded frail.

"Yup." Merle was standing straight, asserting his authority of the situation.

"Heather...can I have a word."

"Anythin' you wanna say to her you can say to me."

Thomas looked at Heather, pleading. She just shrugged, agreeing with Merle. He shook his head in disbelief.

"Do you really want to do this? Go off with him? You're safe here, out there he could start using again, put you in danger."

Before he could say anymore, Heather had jumped down from the back of the van, putting herself between Merle and Thomas, just incase.

"He won't, and even if he does I'll be there. Do you know why? He's loyal, that's not something I can say about you."

Thomas' mouth fell open and closed, trying to find words to defend himself.

"I'm sorry."

"What exactly happened here Sugar?"

"Nothing Merle..."

"I wanted to leave you." Thomas, to Heathers surprise didn't even look ashamed "When we found you, all methed out I told Heather we'd be better off without you anyway."

"Did ya know?" Another surprise, Merle didn't even sound angry, to the contrary he was turning on Heather, smiling.

"She didn't even give it a thought..." Merles smile widened as Heather shook her head, knowing he'd let it all go to his ego.

"Well Tommy, thanks for the honesty." Merle picked up a box under his arm, securing it with his stump and got into the back of the van.

"You're really gonna go?"

"Yeah...we are."

"Got room for a skinny traitor?" He shrugged, the smile on his face genuine. Heather could hear Merles laugh from inside the van and his footsteps quickly crashing towards them.

"Thomas..."

"Oh let him come Sugar! I could you a laugh now and then."

Heather turned to Merle, he was hanging out the back of the van, a smile spread across his face. Shaking her head as she turned to face Thomas again, his eyes were full of hope, the smile on his face making his eyes crease, reminding Heather of the day they met him. Thomas looked so different now, defeated almost. Even his stance seemed different, before he had been confident, his lanky frame always stood in a way that exuded courage. He seemed hunched now, as if the horror of the world had finally beaten him.

Sighing heavily she looked to Merle again for reassurance, he just shrugged casually.

"You said it English, what's the worst that could happen."

"Fine...fine. But any more bullshit and you're on your own."

"You heard her Tommy!" Merle cackled as he continued to pack the van. Thomas just nodded, the smile on his face still present.

They continued to pack the van, they discussed the route they had planned with Thomas, who just nodded along, happy again to be part of the group.

Closing the back of the van when they had finally packed it full of their stuff, Heather took one last look around the shop, making sure they hadn't left anything behind. Walking over to the windows, she lifted the cardboard flap to look over the town. The view looked the same as ever, looking down she saw Merle with his head under the van bonnet, making sure it was okay for the stood uneasily behind him, shifting his weight one foot from the other. Letting the cardboard fall into place Heather thought of her traveling companions. Hoping the choices she'd made over the last month had been the right ones.


	12. Chapter 12

Just another quick word from me! This chapter is a little boring...I'm not 100% happy with the way it came out but I needed to get something down in between them leaving Oxford and what's going to happen next. Don't worry it isn't all going to be this quiet, it is a zombie apocalypse after all.

Thanks again to everyone for all of the favorites, follows and reviews they mean so much to me. I know there's only a few Merle fans and I'm grateful for each one of you :)

Chapter 12

They hadn't been driving long, two hours maybe before Thomas asked them to stop, he had been feeling sick the whole journey and needed some air. This gave Merle the excuse for a bathroom stop and Heather stayed in the van, her feet up on the dashboard stretching out. The journey so far had been peaceful, Thomas had fallen into a comfortable silence while Merle and Heather sung along to the songs they recognised on Merle's CD's, country was the only genre they could both agree on. Johnny Cash was coming through the speakers now, making Heather nostalgic for her family, looking at Merle she realised they might have that one thing in common. Being out on the road had made Heather realise how cold it was getting, winter was setting in and they'd have to think of more practical ways to keep warm, a fire wasn't always available. Especially if they were planning on a long road trip.

Minutes later they were back on the road, Merle humming along to a song Heather didn't realise. Thomas looked decidedly more peaky than when they'd started their journey, and fell asleep soon after getting back in the van. They drove until it started to get dark, Merle saying they'd be better off staying in the van, driving off of the main roads and parking up, like they did before Oxford. Heather agreed and they found a suitable place, not too close to the road but enough to make a quick get away.

"You guys get to sleep...I'll take first watch."

"No Merle, you've been driving all day, go lay down."

"Ain't tired English."

"Neither am I...Thomas?" He was still fast asleep, shaking him gently he opened his eyes slowly, they were bloodshot.

"Are you feeling alright Thomas? Get in the back of the van...get some real rest. There's a box, second row in with some pain killers in, take some and go to sleep yeah?"

He silently did as Heather instructed, swaying slightly as he walked the back of the van. Once he'd finally got to sleep, his breathing slow and rhythmic, Heather turned to Merle.

"Do you think he's alright?"

"Looks sick."

"Could he..." She trailed off unable to finish the sentence, too scared of what her mind was thinking.

"Have been bit?"

Silence followed Merles question, Heather didn't want to confirm her suspicions, feeling guilty that she'd even think that about Thomas.

"S'only one way to make sure." Merle had a dark look on his face, he was looking straight ahead of him, gritting his teeth. He unbuckled his belt, still refusing to look at Heather. She motioned to do the same, but Merle shook his head.

"You're stayin' here English, don't take two of us."

"What if..."

"Whatever happens, I can handle...get in the drivers." And with that he got out of the van, staring intently in the wing mirror at Merles retreating form, Heathers heart was practically pounding in her ears. The creaking of the back van doors shook Heather and she realised Merle wasn't in the mirrors reflection anymore. Turning in her seat she saw him, creeping up quietly on Thomas' sleeping body. Instead of checking him for bites, Merle put his hand on Thomas' head, more gentle than Heather thought possible.

Merle looked up, still crouched over Thomas and shook his head. Getting back out of the van Heather shuffled back to the passenger seat as Merle lifted himself into the van.

"Boy ain't running a fever, if he'd been bit he'd be on fire." Heather nodded, relief washing over her.

They sat in silence, unsure of what to do next.

"We'll be fine Sugar...we will be."

The silence didn't last long, Merle starting chatting away, a story about when his little brother, Daryl, was sick when they were younger. Merle was a few years older than him it sounded, so did a lot of babysitting. He had made Daryl squirrel soup, which apparently was the cure for everything.

"You should make some...see if it helps."

"You'd eat it?" Merle sounded shocked.

"Why wouldn't I?" His laugh was contagious.

"You seem more suited to...venison?"

"Are you saying you couldn't take down a deer?"

"You want venison? I reckon we can make that a reality."

"I think you should stick to squirrels, just for now."

The conversation carried on, Heather found her eyes getting heavy the more comfortable she became and she slowly drifted to sleep.

She was woken by a gentle shake, Thomas leaning over her.

"Hey...go to the back, get some rest, we've got this covered." He nodded towards Merle who was still wide awake.

"You okay Merle? You haven't slept."

"I'll wake you up in a couple of hours...you can take over."

Heather nodded and made her way over the seats to the back of the van, falling asleep almost as soon as she got in the sleeping bag.

It was another four hours till Merle was in the back of the van, not so gently kickin Heather with the toe of his boot.

"Mornin' princess."

"That's a new one."

The conversation with Thomas was stilted, Heather felt as if she constantly had to push to keep it going, push to even keep him awake. Now that they were closer Heather studied Thomas more intently. It wasn't just his physical appearance that had changed, the way he was carrying himself, he wasn't as confident, something seemed to have broken in him. Merle slept for a good five hours, he needed it. While Thomas gradually drifted off as well Heather just sat, enjoying the stillness, wondering how everything had changed so much.

When Merle woke up they were on the road again, heading quickly down the winding roads, carelessly hanging his stump over the steering wheel, hand hanging out the window. A few times they had to stop for Walkers. Heather and Merle would jump out the van, quickly as they could and get rid of them. Thomas just sat still, watching with fear in his eyes.

They started driving on the I85, this however was blocked, which Merle had predicted. They kept going on smaller roads, a day passed until Thomas was too sick to carry on. Merle decided to drive away from Atlanta, it may have been a long detour, but Merle was sure going anywhere highly populated would be a bad move. He studied the map, a twizzler sticking out of his mouth, tutting when he couldn't find somewhere suitable.

When he finally decided on a town, hawkinsville (Heather imagined because it reminded him of where he lived, Blairsville). They traveled for another couple of hours, taking it slow and avoiding walkers at all costs. The town, when they got to it, was larger than Oxford, but Heather hardly got to see it. The wide main road through the town, with stores on either side, was packed with Walkers. Shuffling steps filled the air and moans carried to the van. Merle did a sharp turn, some of the walkers heard but none could keep up with the van.

"What do you think they're doing there?"

"Must be something in that town...someone."

"We should go back...if there are people there."

"That's certain death Enlgish, did ya not see that back there? 'Bout fifty walkers."

"Can't we...I dunno create a diversion?"

"This ain't scooby doo Sugar."

"All you'd have to do is beep, make a noise, we can drive off, around the town there was a clear road you saw it."

Merle grumbled, not wanting to admit Heather was right. Coming to a stop the town was still in sight, Reaching across him Heather punched the steering wheel, the sound made Thomas jump as he had practically gone to sleep leaning against the window.

"What are you trying to do? Attract every Walker for miles?!"

"Yeah actually!" Merle laughed as his sped off, taking the turn of the road at speed, causing Heather again to slam into Merles side, just making him laugh louder, Heather joined in, seeing the walkers from town struggling to catch up. It wasn't a fair race, they had a head start, and four wheels.

The road they were driving down curled around the whole town, heading towards a bridge over a river. Merle kept driving, looking keen to get as much distance between themselves and the town as possible. They came to stop at a shack, full of car parts, three cars without wheels sat outside. The sign above the building read 'Land Tire & Automotive'...a huge billboard boasted that there was a best western hotel just 2 miles away.

"C'mon Sugar..lets check it out." For once Merle wanted Heathers help, normally it was stay in the van, this job obviously required back up.

Grabbing the knife from her waistband she took the gun Merle was passing to her, carefully tucking it in the back of her jeans, letting her jumper fall over it. They carefully and quietly approached the building, it had three green doors across the front, something, thought Heather, that they would have to think about boarding up if they were going to stay there. Merle whistled to get Heathers attention, nodding at the door closest to them. Heather nodded back, saying she understood and carried on toward the shack, knife out in front of her.

Merle got there first, pressing his side against the door it creaked open, making a noise not indifferent from a horror movie. The place was dark, dust covered the floor Merles boots making large prints in it, Heather followed behind him looking at the own marks she was making. The room was narrow but wide, a door at the end of the room signified there was another room off of it. Heather carried on behind Merle as he searched each corner of the room with a torch, making his way towards the door.

They heard them before they saw them. Two walkers were clawing at the door in what Heather realised was the office of the building. Merle stepped aside, motioning for Heather to make a move. Shaking her head she walked forward, kicking one of the walkers knees she winced at how soft it felt under her boot, the skin broke easily revealing rotting flesh underneath, the bone peaking out through the Walkers trousers.

Her knife easily impaled the Walkers head, blood flew across the room hitting Merle, who hardly seemed to mind. He was already holding down the other Walker, ready for Heather to take care of it.

"Lets get him in here before we block the doors."

They carried Thomas in, he was practically asleep, Heather couldn't understand what could be making him react like this. Merle was right, his skin was almost cold to the touch, which worried Heather more than anything. Putting him down in the corner of the room, Heather covered him with the sleeping bag. They got to work, cleaning out the office of the mess the Walkers had left behind. Smashing up the table and using it to board up two of the doors. A quick clean up of the main room, pushing all the chairs and car parts to one side of the room and they were done.

"What do we do? He's sick...I don't know what's wrong with him."

"He ain't running a fever, no cuts so it ain't blood loss. Dehydrated? Maybe just tired."

"So what? We just let him sleep?"

"Not much we can do English." Walking towards the door they'd left clear Merle looked behind her "If he ain't better by mornin', well do something eh?" Heather nodded, following him outside.

There were four plastic chairs sat on the veranda of the shack, the both sat themselves down, looking out of the wide roads, trees surrounding them either side. The sky was clear making the night cold, Heather shivered, untying the flannel shirt from her waist she put it on, pulling her knees up to her chest she rested her head on them, looking sideways at Merle.

"What?"

"You think he's gonna be okay?"

Merle shrugged "Dunno Sugar."

They couldn't see the town from here, couldn't hear anything either. It always shocked Heather how quiet the world was now.

"You think Daryl is gonna be at Fort Benning?"

"If Officer Shane had his way, yeah I reckon so...that's if its still standin'." Heather nodded "Why?"

"Just nice to think you'll have someone waiting for you."

"You know English, I reckon he'd like ya...and even if he don't he's gonna have to get used to ya...I certainly have."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Heather woke up inside, unsure of how she got there. Sitting up a blanket fell from her, pooling on her lap. She had a foggy memory of Merle carrying her inside, but couldn't be sure.

The shack looked different in the morning, sunlight pouring through the grimy windows, lighting up dust in the air like glitter. There wasn't anyone in the shack with her, she could hear voices outside. Getting up and stretching, she was surprised she could sleep so soundly on the hardwood floor, still wearing her jeans and boots.

Merle and Thomas were sat in the plastic chairs on the veranda, in front of them was a fire pit, and it smelt like Merle had been cooking.

"Squirrel?" Heather asked making the two men turn around.

"You betcha Sugar, saved ya some."

Pulling up one of the plastic chairs Heather took the plastic plate from Merle, taking a bite of the flesh on the bone. Surprisingly tasty, she said as much to Merle which made him smile.

Taking a sideways look at Thomas, he didn't look any better, still looking withdrawn and tired, he must have slept for a solid 10 hours.

"You alright Thomas?"

"Yeah..." His voice was croaky "Got a bit of a headache."

She shot Merle a worried look who returned it.

"We've run out of painkillers English, fancy a run into town?"

In her mind Heather saw the town how it was yesterday, a wide road packed with Walkers. So full you couldn't see past them. She nodded.

Thomas was to stay and the shack, or hold down the fort as Merle called it. He was given a gun, which he held more awkwardly than Heather even managed. Merle said they'd go on foot, no point in alerting more walkers to their presence, or people for that matter.

"Are you sure you're okay Thomas?"

"I'll be fine Heather, its you guys I'm worried about."

Merle packed a few bags, making sure they had plenty of weapons, ammo, food and water. Heater sat and watched, worried.

"It's gonna be easy Sugar...in n out okay?"

Heather nodded. This felt different to their other town runs, Merle was talking like it was a military operation, making Heather more nervous.

"Stay safe Tommy." Melre called over his shoulder, Heather walked backwards waving at Thomas. He stood on the veranda of the shack, leaning on the door frame waving back.

"You too! Keep her safe yeah?"

"I don't need him to keep me safe!" They carried on laughing as they walked away, Heather waving over her shoulder.

"Do you think he'll be alright?"

"I'm sure he'll be fine..." his voice didn't sound confident.

The town wasn't far away, if they were in any other situation Heather would have enjoyed the walk. The river was flowing fast, rushing under the bridge beneath their feet. Another ten minutes and they were closer to the town, small shops lined either side of the road, Heather felt strange walking through the abandoned town. Most of the windows were smashed, half the shops empty.

"Hey look!" Heather called to Merle, running towards one of the shop fronts. Another window completely smashed, the store once sold bikes, it looked like only a few had been taken. Obviously not a necessity in an Apocalypse. "We should grab some on the way back."

"I don't cycle." Heather just laughed, wandering back to where Merle was in the middle of the road.

Round a corner they were now on a smaller street, a drugstore being one of the shops on it. Again its windows were smashed, the door hanging off its hinges. But this isn't what their attention was on. One lone walker stood aimlessly in the road, stumbling, almost tripping over.

"I got this one Sugar."

Merle strutted towards the walker, knife in hand. With one swift motion of his hand, the Walker was on the floor, no longer groaning.

"Just one?" Heather was suspicious of how easy it had been.

"Seems like it."

They both headed to the drugstore, Merle warning Heather to stay back as he entered the shop, broken glass crunched under his feet as he carefully check the store. He whistled, signaling to Heather that it was clear. She was still cautious, trying hard not to make a sound. The shelves in the store were almost clear, just things that were considered unnecessary left. She wondered the small isles, checking labels of bottles on the floor. Merle however seemed to know what he was doing, heading to the dispenser counter he vaulted it and started rifling through the boxes of drugs, only labeled with their scientific names.

Heather grabbed a few toiletry essentials, shoving them into the spare empty backpack she had with her.

"Heads up!" Merle called from across the store, throwing a few boxes towards her. Catching a few, dropping more Heather gathered them up and put them in the bag alongside the rest of the things she'd taken.

A loud bang came from outside the store, both Heather and Merle hit the floor, terrified of what was outside. Heather heard shuffling as Merle pulled himself across the floor, trying to get a better view of outside.

"Shit."

"Merle? What is it?" Heather whispered, trying to quietly crawl towards him.

"Walkers, stay where you are English."

"How many?" She was almost with Merle now, ignoring his instructions to stay back.

"I cant see...maybe the horde from yesterday, minus a few."

Heathers stomach dropped, that meant a lot of walkers.

"What's the plan?"

"I'm gonna check the back, see if there's an exit."

She didn't follow him this time, lying on the floor, watching the walkers aimlessly amble in the road outside.

Merle was back in what felt like seconds, so quiet he scared Heather when he carefully tapped her on the shoulder. She looked at him, hopefully, all he did was shake his head.

"We gotta make a diversion, and then run."

"How are we gonna do that?"

Heather could practically see the cogs in Merles head ticking, whirring round and working on a plan. The groaning outside was only getting louder, Heather could hardly hear herself think.

"It's a long shot English."

"We can do it. Whatever it is Merle we can."

Merle explained the plan, it was risky. It could work, if the Walkers did what Merle was expecting them to do.

"You feelin' brave Sugar?"

"Gonna have to be aren't I?" Merle gave her a quick nod and got into position at the back of the store. Heather crouched at the front, gun in hand. She looked at him as he held up three fingers, counting down. At one he grabbed the stacked shelves from the wall, pushing them to the floor making a huge crash. Packets of whatever was on the shelves skidded across the floor, making even more noise. It did the job, every walkers head suddenly turned in their direction. As one they descended on the store, pouring through the smashed window and heading for the point the noise had come from. Merle was still standing there, waiting for the very last moment he could.

Almost all the Walkers were in the store now, filling the store, making it impossible to move. Merle acted now, slashing the neck of the nearest walker, he covered himself in the thick blood that poured from the wound as Heather slipped by the last few stragglers trying to get into the store. As one of them grabbed her hair she bought the grip of the gun down on the Walkers head, smashing its skull quickly. She turned to see Merle, covered in blood standing on top of the shelves. Some of the walkers clawing at his legs as he ran across them. He wasn't even attempting to stay quiet now, he fired round after round into the crowd, Heather was sure he didn't miss a single kill.

There were still a few walkers outside the store, gathering up her courage she gripped the gun, aiming it at the nearest one she squeezed the trigger. Her hands were shaking so much she could hardly believe she hit her target. Sure it was in the leg but a hit was a hit. Trying again she missed this time.

"Fuck it." She swapped the gun for the knife in the back of her jeans, running towards the Walker and plunging it straight into his head, hearing the sickening crunch as metal smashed through skull. Glancing towards the store Merle was so close to the exit. She ran forward, still opting for her knife as she took out a few walkers at the front of the store, kicking at their knees before taking her knife to their heads.

Merle was nearing the front of the store now, reaching for her Heather grabbed his arm, pulling him through the throngs of walkers, all grabbing at them. One had hold of Merles leg, clawing and biting, unable to get a good grip. Merle kicked out with such force the Walkers neck made a cracking noise, it fell backwards taking a few more with it.

They were out of the store now, Merles breathing was heavy as he aimed at a few of the stragglers, taking them down with two well aimed shots.

"Lets fucking go English."

Running at full speed down the road, walkers started to follow behind them. They had a good enough start and rounded the corner so they couldn't see them anymore.

They were still being followed when they reached the bike shop, Heather slowed and ran into the store, laughing as Merle swore under his breath.

She grabbed the nearest looking bike to her as Merle entered the store, Rolling it into his hands she took another one, testing to make sure it was good she pedaled fast out of the store, checking behind her to make sure Merle was on her tail. He was all over the road, unable to keep the bike steady, especially with one hand. Heather suppressed a laugh, especially when she saw the Walkers were closing in on them. Turning the bike back to Merle she skidded along beside him.

"Want a ride?" The seat was too high for Heather anyway, and the way back to the shack was practically flat. Laughing Merle threw his bike to the side, grabbing hold of Heather he pulled himself on to the seat, resting his feet on the back wheel hub he whistled loudly, Heather laughed as she struggled to start going. Cranking up the gears so that she was pushing against something, her speed picked up. Merle was cackling now, looking behind him and shaking his fist at the Walkers struggling to keep up.

Heather was becoming out of breath just as she hit a slight downhill in the road, taking the gears down now, she let the pedals move under her feet, feeling the wind whipping at her hair she smiled as she felt Merles arms snake around her waist. They were getting close to the bridge now, looking behind her she couldn't see one Walker. Amazed at their escape she started to laugh, a sound that Merle mimicked, both full of the euphoria of survival.

"How the fuck did ya do that?'

"I used to take spinning classes," Heather laughed at the quizzical look on Merles face, he'd obviously not heard of spinning before.

She slowed before they came to the shack, both of them getting off the bike. Heather kept pushing it as they fell into a leisurely pace. Heather left her bike outside the shack, running to meet Merle as he pushed open the green door.

Three men and a woman stood in the room, all but one pointing guns at Merle and Heather, the last one held a gun to Thomas' head.

"Merle, Heather...So nice of ya' to finally join us."


	14. Chapter 14

Another word from me! How are you guys!? Hope you're enjoying the way the story is going. Thought I'd update you on the timescale, in my story they are now about 120 days into the apocalypse. That's probably halfway between seasons. So Rick and the group are currently running from house to house trying to survive winter.

Thank all of you so so much for the reviews/faves/follows! I'm trying really hard to update regularly but get so stuck sometimes. I know how I want the story to go just struggle to get everything to fit.

I will be trying really hard to stick to the timeline, but plan to be changing some major things once Merle and Heather meet up with the group (I know it feels like a long way away yet but it will happen!). I have some actual plans laid out for it but if anyone has any ideas? Suggestions? Let me know :)

Thanks again

x

Chapter 14

The man standing closest to them was small, he couldn't have been taller than 5'5", his dark hair contrasted too much with his fair skin, making him look as pale as a Walker. He stood as tall as he could, staring at Merle. Behind him stood two guys who looked like brothers, both tall with strong jaws and straight noses, their dark skin only proving to make the man in front of them more pale in comparison. The woman at the back, still holding a gun to Thomas' head was small, very slim with long red hair pulled into a braid at the side of her head. Together, they made as oddly matched group as Heather, Merle and Thomas.

"Nothin' to say eh?" The man in front spoke again, waving the gun in his hand wildly as he did. His accent was thicker than Merles.

"What the fuck's goin' on here Tommy?" Merle was being careful, standing straight, keeping still.

"How 'bout I tell ya?" The pale man spoke again, flashing Heather a yellow toothed smile "We followed ya here last night, ya'll drove off before we could thank ya for savin' us."

"You were the ones in the town yesterday..." Heather couldn't help herself.

"Sure were blondie!" Heather glanced towards Thomas, who gave the very lightest shake of his head. He still looked sick. His skin was almost pale, eyes sunken.

"Now we thought it was awful rude that you didn't stick around. We came up to thank ya." Sure you did, Heather thought, stopping herself from making things worse.

"Only you weren't home." One of the brothers spoke this time, not taking his eyes off Heather, or his gun. His voice was deep, he spoke with an accent that Heather couldn't place.

"Well...Tommy here was! And when we told him we bumped into the two of ya and y'all had told us to wait for ya here...well, he just talked n talked didn't he?"

Merle shot an accusatory look at Thomas, who barely registered it, he could hardly keep his head up. Heather doubted Thomas had told them too much, he didn't seem able to say anything now.

"Look, can we put a hold on the pleasantries. Thomas is sick, we have medicine." She held up her backpack. Keeping what she said short, she didn't want her mouth to run away with her.

"Sure thing honey."

"Its Heather, as you know." She walked towards Thomas, opening the bag as she went. One of the tall brothers grabbed her, his hands round her waist his fingers digging into Heathers protruding hip bones. This made Merle jump forward, only stopped by the mans gun in his face.

"Hey hey, Eeaaassyy now...we'll give ol' Tommy the meds."

Heather looked to Merle for reassurance. He nodded slowly, taking his eyes off of the man with his gun now pointed at Merles chest.

Heather passed over her bag, taking a few steps back so she was out of the man's reach.

"Since you know both our names, think its only polite we get introduced?"

"Of course! How rude of me." The man was waving his gun as he spoke, using it as an extension of his arm. The Man Heather had given her bag to made his way towards Thomas, slipping his gun into a holster on his hip.

"I'm Bobbie Sawyer," Heather was sure that couldn't be a real name "These two tall idiots are Marco and Gus." He pointed at the two men, the nearest one, who had grabbed Heather was Marco, the other Gus. "And our resident redhead is Millie." The woman nodded at them, smirking as she still held the gun to Thomas' temple. Marco was rifling through the boxes, the crease in his forehead showing he had no idea what any of them were.

"Need some help there Marco?" Merle was smirking, which scared Heather. Whenever Merle smiled like that it generally meant he was trying to piss someone off.

"Just tell me what to give him."

"I'd prefer to do it myself...if ya don't mind."

"Let 'im Marco." The small man spoke, eyes still on Merle, who was now confidently striding towards Thomas, snatching the bag from Marco, methodically checking each of the boxes. He dropped a few, trying to open the packets one handed.

"Little help here English?" Merle couldn't open them, cautiously Heather made her way forward, worried that Marco would grab her again. He didn't, and Heather took each pack Merle gave her, taking out a tablet from each and handing them to Thomas. He took them thankfully, taking them without water. Heather took the bag from Merle, taking out one of the water bottles, unscrewing it and giving it to him. He needed all the help he could get. Thomas drank greedily, closing his eyes and falling back, looking exhausted.

Merle took this chance to stretch out on the floor, all confidence back as he grabbed a water bottle and drank eagerly. Heather still stood uneasily, not as positive as Merle that they'd make it through this unscathed.

"Look, we don't intend to be here long."

"Good." Merle was certainly getting more confident.

"We were just waitin' for y'all to get back wit the keys to the van."

"And what exactly did you want with the keys?" Heather shot Merle a warning look, knowing the last thing they wanted to do was piss these people off more. Guns obviously weren't enough to scare Merle.

"Somethin' tells me you got stuff in that van. Stuff that we three could use. You see...when we were bein' attacked by walkers.."

"Ya' mean when we saved ya?" Merle interrupted

"That's the one! Yeah...we lost all our stuff, food, clothes, anythin' that wasn't on us. Gone."

"So you all thought ya'd come rob us?" Merle had his hands behind his head now, leaning casually on the wall as Heather stood awkwardly between him and Millie, still with her gun pointed at Thomas.

"Well...we need supplies." This guy really didn't beat around the bush.

"Told ya' we should've left 'em Sugar."

Coughing came from behind Heather, she turned to see Thomas bent double, hacking into his hands. Heather didn;'t even think, moving towards him only to be held back by Gus.

"Now, now Gus, let the lady help."

Rushing to Thomas she grabbed the water bottle at his feet, raising it to his lips she felt his forehead.

"Merle he's burning up...Thomas, you need to sleep."

Between coughs Thomas managed to lie down, his eyes closing as he hit the floor. His breathing became steadier as he quickly fell asleep.

"I'll make this easy, you give us the keys to the van, we let you take care of your sick friend."

"And why would we do that?"

Bobbie laughed, "Ain't you guys realised ya got guns pointed at ya'?"

"Of course we realised." Heather stood defensively over Thomas, trying to get between him and the barrel of Millie's gun.

"Woah there, what's a pretty thing like you gotta have attitude like that."

"Fuck you." Heather spat at him.

This only made Billie smile wider, striding towards her and stopping just in front of her, using the barrel of his gun to lift Heathers head so she was staring in his eyes. His breath hit Heathers face, he smelt of stale smoke, making Heathers stomach lurch.

"I like 'em feisty, don't I boys?" His lip curled as he said it.

"You leave her the fuck alone." Merle was on his feet now, knees bent, ready to pounce if needed.

Still with his gun at Heathers neck, Billie turned his head to Merle, the smile gone from it, replaced with a look that scared Heather more than a hundred Walkers. Heather had been frightened of Merle when they first met, but it was nothing compared to this. Just looking at Billie made her feel sick, she could still smell his breath, attacking her senses as she tried hard to breathe normally.

"And if I don't?"

"You leave her n I'll give ya the keys." Merle wasn't pleading, it wasn't a bargain. He was serious.

"No Merle don't."

"She really that sweet? Maybe I'll take her instead." Heathers blood went cold, she stood still, trying to stay calm.

"I could take both...You got two guns on ya, Thomas here ain't 'bout to stand up and play attack dog is he?"

His statement was followed by silence from Merle and Heather, Billies laughter vibrated through the room, echoed by the brothers Gus and Marco.

Before Merle could make things worse they heard something outside of the shack.

"Go check it out boys."

Like two faithful lapdogs Marco and Gus headed out of the door, as they did Millie took her gun from Thomas, pointing it at Merle so all threats were covered. Silence stretched for the minute that the two men were outside, it was cut short by them calling from outside.

"Walkers!"

"How many?" Billie called out, not moving an inch.

"Gotta be...30? Maybe more." They had followed Merle and Heather all the way back.

"Looks like the horde from yesterday."

Billie was silently weighing up his options.

"Ya'll gonna stay here...Millie if they move. Shoot."

He dropped his gun from Heathers throat, running out the door.

"Light 'em up boys." His words were followed by gunfire, each round resonated through the room. Even with all the noise Thomas still slept, worrying Heather more than any of the Walkers outside, more than the woman pointing her gun from Heather to Merle.

It felt like twenty minutes went by, Heather could hear muffled yelling, gunfire followed by the sounds of bodies hitting the floor. The door was kicked in by Marco, followed by Gus and Billie. All three men were out of breath, Gus was as covered in blood as Merle was.

"You lead them here?"

Merle didn't answer, Heather averted her gaze, not wanting to look at Billie.

"Get the keys off the hillbilly Marco. We're goin'."

The tall man held his hand out to Merle, saying nothing, standing still, waiting.

"I ain't got 'em."

"Let's not fuck around trailor trash, give me the keys, we don't wanna waste any more bullets."

"I ain't the one fuckin' you around Bilbo Baggins..." His eyes purposly found Thomas, smiling as he did.

"Ya gotta be fuckin' me. You checked him." Billie rounded on Marco, his gun now pointed at his supposed friend.

"I did...nothin' on him but those photos." Photos? Heathers mind was racing. Merle was laughing, looking straight down the barrel of the gun Millie had pointed at him.

"Y'all check the van?"

A movement of Billies head sent Marco outside. Heather heard the van start outside and Billie shook his head.

"Fuckin' idiot!" and with that they were backing out of the shack, guns still aimed at Heather and Merle.

"Thank you!" Millie called through the door as she left, the first words she'd said the whole time. Heather heard the van doors slam as her and Merle walked out of the building.

They stood on the veranda, surrounded by bodies. Heather watched as the van as it sped away, Millie hanging out the window laughing, her red hair spilling from her braid whirling in the wind.

"Fuck."

"What do we do now?" Heather stood, shoulders slumped, defeated.

"What we always do Sugar, keep goin'."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

They stayed in the shack for another two days,they didn't want to risk taking Thomas on the road if they didn't have to. They were surviving on the food that Merle and Heather took with them on their run into town. They had almost nothing else, everything had been in the van. Merle and Heather still had their knives. Three guns, Merles was almost empty, Heathers, thanks to her cautiousness in town was still almost full. Thomas had yet to use his. A few packs of jerky and 5 bottles of water. They had all the stuff Heather and Merle had grabbed on their run into town. Everything else had gone, clothes, Heathers bow (not that she could use it particularly well), food, ammo, everything.

"We gotta move out soon..."

Heather nodded at Merle, her eyes finding Thomas who was resting against the wall, eyes closed, sweat on his forehead. He hadn't got any better. He had spent the last two days in and out of fitful sleep, unable to relax. When Heather asked how he felt he tried to play it off, saying it was just a headache, a little nausea.

"What about Thomas?"

He barely moved his lips to reply "I can walk." Heather shook her head, Thomas was trying to be positive, trying to stop Heather worrying about him.

"We'll leave tomorrow, get some sleep English."

Heather couldn't, not only was the night freezing cold, without any of the blankets and extra clothes there wasn't much she could do. She sat up, staring at the door which was banging every few seconds in the breeze.

"You alright?" Thomas was awake now, both of them just sitting in the dark.

"Yeah...can't sleep." Heather looked over to Merle, he was supposed to be on watch but had fallen asleep propped up against the wall.

"We're gonna... be good...you know that right?" Thomas spoke, his voice stained, as if he was talking through pain.

"We always are." she tired a weak smile.

The next morning they packed up their meager supplies, Heather took the bag with food and the medication in. Merle had the heavy stuff, water and two of the guns. The left the shack almost as they'd found it. They even took some of the wood they had used to board up the doors, Merle said you could never be too prepared.

Walking out of the shack, avoiding stepping on any of the bodies she tiptoed towards the bike she'd left outside two days before. Picking it up Heather adjusted the seat so it was more to her height. Jumping on the bike she pushed the pedals around slowly, testing her stiff legs.

"First stop, town. We need ta see if there's anything left there at all."

"It wasn't empty when we went."

"Exactly, we need food, clothes, anything."

It was slow going, Thomas' steps were slow and painful, he had no energy but was pushing through as much as he could.

"Wanna backie?" Heather pulled up alongside him, slowing to keep in step with Thomas' pace.

"I'm...okay."

"Seriously Thomas, get on." He shook his head and kept walking, Heather sped up, her muscles aching from not using them for so long.

It took about half an hour to get into town, once they did it looked much the same as the day Merle and Heather had been before. A few lone walkers wondering around the streets, Merle and Heather took them down no problem, Thomas stood and watched, swaying as he stood.

"We're gonna check all t'shops...never know whats been missed."

Heather nodded as they entered their first store, her boots crunching the broken glass under her feet. So much of these reminded her of two days previous. Being as quiet as possible she crouched as she made her way around the store. This place used to be a fashion store, strappy tops and sandals lined the walls. Knowing where to check she headed for the clearance area. The apocalypse started when Atlanta was being soaked by sunlight. At the back of the store stood one lone stand, its rails filled with long sleeved tops and jumpers. Grabbing anything in her size, hardly caring what they looked like. A few larger sized plain tops were shoved in her bag as well, Merle and Thomas couldn't be picky at this point.

A whistle came from outside the store, Heather finished packing her bag and walked towards Merle, standing with his back against the door frame while Thomas sat on the floor, heavy breathing. She handed Merle one of the plain t-shirts, he pulled of his bloodsoaked one and changed quickly.

"Got much else?"

"Some clothes, stuff for the cold weather. You?"

"Nothing, staff room had been cleared."

"You alright Thomas?"

He nodded, coughing into his hand.

"Why don't you rest here eh? Take this," Merle handed him a gun, checking that the safety was on and that it had at least a few rounds left "We'll carry on lookin', stay inside one of the stores, stay quiet, we'll be back in an hour."

Heather knelt down next to him, "You warm enough?" Thomas nodded, shuffling himself inside the store. Taking a bottle of water and some meds out of her bag she handed them to him.

"If ya need us Tommy, jus' shout, town ain't that big."

Merle and Heather spent the next hour cautiously going around the town, they encountered a few Walkers, nothing that they couldn't handle. They didn't find much in the stores. One of the staff rooms was locked, Merle kicked the door, precisely aiming for the lock. A loud crack filled the air but it didn't quite break, one more kick and the door swung open. The smell hit Heather as she walked in the room.

"Smells like the milk might be a bit off." Merle laughed as he looked at the body lying on the floor. Unmoving, and unquestionably dead.

Merle went straight to the draws, rifling through them making unnecessary noise. Heather checked the cupboards and was surprisingly impressed. Whoever had worked in the game store was well fed. There were packets and packets of twinkies, doritos...anything in a packet that was bad for you filled the cupboard.

"Hey Merle!" Heather opened the nearest packet of twinkies, throwing one of the cakes to Merle.

"Jesus.." Merle tore open the packet with his teeth, devouring the cake in two bites. "Never liked these much."

"I've never had one."

"What!? Never?"

"We don't have them back home." Opening the packet she tried some of it "Little bit sugary for me...but I can hardly afford to be picky." Finishing the rest of the cake she shoved everything from the cupboard in her bag, turning to Merle, who had found a blunt knife in one of the drawers.

They didn't find much else, a tools tore where Merle found a hammer under a stand, a few more clothing stores where Merle kicked their way into the storerooms, finding some winter clothing for all of them. Heading back to Thomas' hiding place, Heather was pleased with what they'd managed to find. He was still there, almost asleep in the corner of the clothing store they'd left him in.

"Mornin' princess."

"That's a new one." Thomas said, opening his eyes and standing up, stretching out.

"You feeling better?" He looked like the rest had done him good.

"Yeah actually, feeling good." Heather smiled as Merle rifled through the bag on her back.

"What do you want Merle?"

"Map."

"Front left pocket...jesus Merle just ask." He tugged at the zips, practically making her topple over.

He studied the map for a while, tracing roads with his fingertips.

"Where are we headed?" looking at Thomas she hoped it was close.

"Need ta find a car." There were plenty in town, all of them they checked had no gas, smashed windows or flat tires.

"Head for the highway then?"

"S'what I was thinkin'."

It took forever, Thomas was feeling better, but that didn't mean he was fit enough to walk. He struggled to keep up. Heather offered him a ride countless times but he refused every one of them, preferring to walk. The roads on the way were littered with cars, all abandoned because they'd either broken down or run out of fuel. Three hours into their journey Thomas collapsed, hitting the ground hard. Heather threw her bike to the ground and rushed over, lifting his head from the ground. He was unconscious, still breathing steadily Heather looked to Merle.

"What do we do?" Heather asked in a sick imitation of when Merle had overdosed, Merles eyes raked over Thomas' unconscious form. Seconds dragged by where Heather was sure Merle was going to finish the re-enactment, telling Heather that they should leave him.

"We'll stay here, there's a truck up there, I'll carry Tommy." Heather smiled thankfully, unable to contain her emotions tears were rolling down her face as Merle grabbed Thomas, struggling to throw him over his shoulder.

"Here..." Heather grabbed Thomas under his armpits as Merle rested his legs on one of his shoulders. They made their way slowly to their nearest truck, Heather stopping a few times to re-adjust the way she was carrying him. They carefully laid down Thomas across the front seat, resting his head on a balled up hoodie Heather had nabbed from the town.

Jumping into the bed of the truck Heather stretched out, leaning her head on the cab.

"What are we gonna do Merle?"

"He'll wake up soon."

"I know...but after that? We have so long until we get to the highway. And then? If we get surrounded or attacked by Walkers? Thomas can't defend himself and we can't look out for him forever."

Merle was quiet, he didn't have an answer for her.

They took the night in watches, Heather slept first. This time she was exhausted enough to doze off. When Merle woke her up he looked tired.

"He woke up."

"Thomas?" Merle nodded.

"Gone back to sleep now, so I'm gonna too."

Five hours later Merle woke up, he sat with the map again as Heather sat on the tail of the truck, legs swinging. They had a breakfast of Twinkies and honey roasted nuts. Thomas had some water but hadn't managed to eat anything.

They carried on towards the highway, checking every car as they went. One car started and had quarter of a tank of gas.

They all piled in, Heather feeling more positive about their journey than last night, Merle was sure they had enough fuel to get to the highway. Thomas was lying across the back seats, Heather and Merle in the front planning their day. It took no time to get to the highway, Merle was reminding Heather of what exit they needed to take to get to the town they planned on staying in when they ran out of gas.

"Think we should get a different car English, this one ain't soundin' too good anyways."

They left Thomas in the back of the car, he'd fallen asleep almost as soon as they'd started moving. Making their way over to the other side of the highway, there were plenty of abandoned cars coming away from Atlanta. Merle told her to look for vans, or anything that looked "like I would drive it." She raised her eyebrow at him.

"How's this?!" Heather called to Merle. She stood next to a dark brown GMC van, its windows blacked out, to Heather it looked like the kind of van a serial killer might drive. She decided not to tell Merle that as he gave it an approving look.

Getting into the front seat Merle searched everywhere for the keys, they weren't in the ignition like most of the cars they'd come across. Heather reached across him flipping down the sun visor, the key fell right into Merles lap. She laughed as Merle sulked. The van had hardly any fuel, but Merle was happy to drain the surrounding engines while Heather checked the cars for supplies.

"Guys?!" They heard Thomas yelling from across the highway, crawling out of the back seat of a dusty BMW, she searched the highway for him as Merle kept his head down, still draining the tank. She clambered onto the top of the car, shielding her eyes as the winter sun bounced off of the cars. She spotted him. He wasn't alone.

"Shit." Merle looked up, tube still in his mouth. "Shit! Thomas...Walkers! Behind you!"

She was too late, three Walkers crawled out of an open coach behind Thomas. He turned as Heather shouted, just in time to see the female walker before she sunk her teeth into his neck.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Heathers feet moved underneath her, launching herself off the top of the car she flew towards Thomas. Time felt like it was standing still, she made it over to him in what felt like seconds. Grabbing the gun tucked into the back of her jeans she didn't even bother to stop running. Aiming as best she could she fired five times at the Walkers now pouring out of the coach. Two went down, only to get back up again. She could hear Merle calling her from across the highway, but ignored him. Only concentrating on Thomas ahead of her, now on the floor, Walkers piling on top of him. Tears streamed down her face as she ran, knowing that she couldn't save him, that he was gone. She could still hear him, screaming. The noise echoed across the highway.

Finally she made it to Thomas, throwing her gun to the ground she got the knife from her waistband, attacking wildly stabbing anything that she came into contact to. Hands grabbed her from behind, kicking her legs out she pushed herself away from it, swinging around brandishing her knife.

She stood breathing heavily, holding her knife to Merles throat. As soon as she saw his face she broke down, crying and falling to the ground.

"Get the fuck up English...we still got work to do." Merles voice was gruff and loud as he stood towering above her. She couldn't get up, everything had overcome her. Thinking of Thomas looking at her from across the highway, a smile wide on his face as he waved at her. His last moments before he was attacked.

"Heather! Heather C'mon."

Still unable to move, Heather tried to concentrate on her breathing. She could feel Merle moving around her, hear him grunting as he took down Walker after Walker, stabbing and shooting as he struggled to get control.

"Please...Heather..." Merles strangled cry came from further away this time, turning she saw him pinned against the side of the coach, a Walker grabbed on to him as three approached her. Scrambling to her feet she grabbed the gun from the ground, holding it as steady as possible she tried to remember what Merle had taught her about aiming. Breathing as steadily, two breaths in and one out, she held it with both hands, breathing out again as she pulled the trigger. The bullet pierced the metal of the coach, two inches from the Walkers head. Not deterred she fired again, this time the bullet hit, getting the Walker just about his neck, the bullet exiting the back of his head, brains showering the side of the coach. Full of confidence she took aim at one of the Walkers making its way toward her. Firing again she hit it in the shoulder, not hesitating she let another two rounds off finally hitting her target.

Merle had already shot down the other two walkers, they both stood, breathing heavily. She felt like the whole world was spinning around her. Heather stared into the distance, unable to look at Merle, unable to look at the pile of Walkers that Thomas' body was under. In her peripheral vision she could see Merle moving towards her, flinching as he put his hand on her shoulder.

"Sugar..."

"He's gone."

He didn't say anything, just patted her on the shoulder and made his way over to Thomas' body. Merle heaved a heavy Walker off of Thomas' chest. Pulling him out of the mess of bodies, he laid him on the ground, being as gentle as Heather had seen him. Aiming his gun squarely at Thomas' head he looked to Heather for reassurance. She nodded, unable to move closer. When Merle squeezed the trigger of his gun, Heather squeezed her eyes shut, her stomach dropping.

The gunshot echoed around the highway, Heather was sure it was the only noise for miles. It silenced everything, the ringing the shot had left in her ears was the only thing she could hear. The shots they'd fired before, when the Walkers had attacked had hardly registered to Heather. This one however resonated, crashing through her mind as if Merle had shot her instead.

Merle was standing in front of her now, waving his stump in her eye line, trying to get her attention. Her eyes were blurred with tears when she finally did look at him, it only made her cry harder. She heard Merle say something, whatever it was didn't get through to Heather as she stumbled towards the nearest car. Holding onto it she let herself slide down door, hitting the floor harder than she had anticipated.

Head in her hands she didn't hear Merle kneel in front of her, only realising he was there when his hand gently touched her shoulder. Looking up her eyes looked past him to Thomas' body laying on the tarmac. Her breath became shaky as she tried hard to keep herself together. Even from here she could see the bullet wound in his head, making her feel sick.

"We gotta go Sugar, we made a hell of a lot of noise here."

"But...Thomas."

"He's gone."

"We need to bury him.

"What with? We don't have a shovel, you can't even stand up English."

"We can't just leave him Merle."

Merle stared at her, pity written on his face.

"No Merle, we can't...we've gotta..."

"Okay English, we'll think of somethin'."

Standing up Merle stretched out his arms, pacing in front of Heather as he made a plan. She heard shuffling as Merle struggled to pick Thomas up. Seeing him practically wrestling with the body Heather got up, unable to watch.

"Let me help." He looked at her, checking that she was sure. Nodding rather than answering.

"Over to t' car...the Ford." Carrying Thomas over to the car, Heathers mind was blank. What she was doing felt so unreal. As she moved him photos fell out of his coat pocket, Heather grabbed them glancing quickly but not registering what they were.

They set Thomas down gently in the back of the car, like they had so many times before. Merle closed the door, stepping back he held his arm out so Heather did too.

"Stay where ya are Sugar."

Merle ran over to the other side of the highway, back to where he was draining fuel. Heather was starring at the car, unable to comprehend what it held, what had happened in the last ten minutes.

He came running back, vaulting over a tire abandoned in the road. He was holding the petrol can and the hammer he'd found in the tool store.

"Stand back." Merle smashed two of the windows. Pouring petrol through the window, tipping the can to make sure he got it across the seats. "Get me somethin...a shirt? Somethin' I can light."

Turning to the pile of Walkers behind her Heather tried to tear one of their shirts, getting covered in blood as she did. Finally she managed to rip some material away, throwing it to Merle who held out his hand. He dipped the shirt in the remaining petrol, holding out his stump to make sure Heather didn't get to close. Lighting the end of it he threw the shirt through the smashed window, stepping back as he did so.

"Will it explode?"

"Only in movies English." She nodded, holding her breath as the fire started to catch, spreading across the interior of the car.

"C'mon...best not to stand too close."

They walked silently over to the GMC van, the fire beginning to roar behind them. Merle opened the door, standing on the floor of the van he heaved himself onto the roof, holding his hand down to Heather, grabbing onto him Heather pulled herself up as Merle steadied his stump against the roof rack.

They sat, legs hanging off the side of the van, sitting vigil as the car went up in flames. They sat for a good half hour, both silent as they watched the fire roar. Once it hard started to calm, Merle jumped down, holding out his hand to Heather. She gave one last look at the car, thinking of what it held. Nodding more to herself than anyone else, she took Merle's hand and jumped down from the roof.

Heather sat in the front seat of the van, head resting on the window, staring at the highway going past, not really seeing anything. Merle had got off the highway as soon as she could, turning off at the exit Merle had told Heather about before their truck had run out of fuel. They had hardly spoken, any words that were uttered had a strained quality. Merle was talking in almost hushed tones, as if any loud noises were likely to set her couldn't take the silence that was in the van, forcing Heather to flick through the CD case that had been in the glove box. Heather hadn't wanted to chose, preferring to read the names out to Merle and just choosing the one he sounded most positive about. Willie Nelson's twangy voice drifted quietly through the van, Merle was tapping his fingers on the gear stick as Heather continued to stare out the window.

They drove for hours, roads taking them past farmland that Heather hadn't seen in Atlanta before. She was more used to busy cities and woods. These surroundings reminded her more of home than anything she'd seen in America before.

Merle started to swerve over the road, Heather had to lean over and grab the steering wheel as he dozed off.

"Maybe we should stop for a bit...I think we're both exhausted."

Merle just nodded, driving the van onto the field at the side of the road. He stopped the car and took Heathers offer of taking watch first.

She sat up, propped against the door, feet up on the dash. She was unable to think of anything but Thomas. How sick had been to the end of it, how confident he'd been when they first met, what they'd all been through together, as a team. Heather hardly knew anything about Thomas, but they'd survived together, and that meant something. It amazed Heather how she'd managed to overcome so much death in the last 4 or so months. She'd changed, she used to be the kind of person to pay for overpriced coffee, who took spinning and yoga classes at the gym. Her life was full of lectures and lazy Sundays. That person was unrecognisable to Heather now, days were filled with running and fighting and killing. The fact that she was mourning Thomas more than any of her family tortured her.

Once Merle had woken up Heather had moved to the back of the van, laying out on the back seat she fell asleep almost instantly. She was too exhausted to even dream.

The next day Merle made plans to drive to the nearest small town, they needed supplies and if they couldn't find that, a stable place to stay. He pointed at a place called greenville, about twenty minutes away. They drove, hardly speaking but the silence wasn't uncomfortable.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

They headed for the town, Merle was sure their plan should be the same as last time. Head for lone standing shops, not towns or housing. There were a few lone walkers in the town, nothing that worried Merle as he cruised past them, looking down each road.

It took longer than they thought, the town was small but Merle was being decidedly picky. They drove around town at 10mph, driving past huge bookshops, a beautiful church (which only reminded Heather of Oxford) and a building which looked innocent to Heather, but Merle revealed it was a county jail. Heather gave a questioning look in his direction.

"How do you know that?"

"Was in a movie..." Heather still raised her eyebrow "starred Johnny Cash. Could be safe?"

"I'm not staying in a jail Merle."

"Suit ya' self...ain't that bad."

They carried on looking, the town was quintessentially America, every house had huge front laws, white washed verandas and wide roads. They finally found somewhere, a small white garage that was only next to one other shop. "Roberts Garage" was printed above the door. The place looked like somewhere Merle would be at home in.

"Right Sugar, lets unload."

It didn't take long, their meager supplies could be loaded into two boxes. Merle had already managed to open the door, everything about the building was so old it didn't take too much effort.

The adjoining shop was a liquor store. Merle was almost sure there would be something useful in there. He left Heather to set up, they didn't have much but she made the most of what they did have. Spreading out what they'd found in the cars on the highway. One sleeping bag, a huge jacket that Heather planned on using as a sleeping bag, two large bottles of water, half a bag of M&M's (which only reminded Heather of Thomas) and a few tins of food. Merle had taken the knife they found on the floor of one of the cars and the hammer in case he came across any Walkers. Heather waited, in silence, worried about Merle.

He was back in half an hour, with little to show for it. A few bottles of extremely cheap looking vodka, 20 packs of honey roasted cashews and empty cardboard boxes.

"Best to get some sleep English...got a big day tomorrow." She nodded, knowing they'd have to raid houses, stores, anywhere they could find.

The first day went better than either Heather or Merle could have expected. They went to the houses first, methodically checking a whole neighborhood. A few houses had Walkers locked in rooms, they were easily dispatched with Heathers knife. They found plenty of food and clothes, Heather was starting to feel actually positive, probably for the first time since their last night at the shack.

They went back to the garage that night, Heather had cold spaghetti while Merle opted for beans. Putting on the huge jacket and nursing a small glass of vodka Heather even managed to feel warm, a feeling she was sure was impossible now that winter had finally hit Georgia. She slept that night peacefully, hoping that this was finally the start of something more positive.

The next day started much the same, they drove to the centre of the town, methodically checking each store on the small strip mall. They weren't as successful as yesterday, finding only a small amount of food and a few towels. They were on their fifth store, a small hardware store. Heather could tell immediately that something wasn't right. There was blood covering the floor of half the store. Marks that looked like something...someone had been dragged to the back room.

"Stay here Sug..."

"No." Merle sighed.

"Fine be quiet."

They warily walked to the back of the store, making as little noise as possible. Merle held his gun out in front of him, using the barrel to push open the door a crack, he peered into the room behind. Slowly turning to Heather he just shook his head, backing away from the open door. Without asking Heather followed him, knowing that if Merle was retreating, it had to be dangerous. Creeping out of the store Heather carefully held the door open for Merle, still not saying a word.

Carefully closing the door behind him, pointing at the car 5 stores down. As they made their way towards it, a bang came from the store they'd just exited. Turning as they started running towards the car, through the door poured walkers, more than Heather could believe had been in the store room. They made the van, Merle indicated that Heather should drive as he got in the passenger seat, hanging out of the window with his gun trained on the walkers.

"How many?"

"Couldn't tell ya' English, the backdoor was open. All just standin' there..."

She drove, looking at the walkers filling the street in the rearview mirror. Still in shock at how many walkers could squeeze into that tiny space they all disappeared as she turned the van round a corner. She drove back to the garage, Merle looking down every side street they passed, gun still trained out of the window.

"Right English, you check down on end of the street, I'll do the other." She nodded, they both got out of the van, closing the doors as quietly as possible.

"Use the gun sugar."

Shaking her head Heather took the gun out of her waistband, holding it out in front of her, doing her best to imitate how Merle. The road wasn't long, down the end of it Heather only had to check round one corner, seeing nothing she ran back to the van to meet Merle.

"All clear." She whispered to him.

"Same." Merle nodded.

They took the meager supplies they had found in the stores and closed the doors, still making as little noise as they could.

"They won't have been able to follow all the way here would they?" Heather needed reassurance from Merle.

"Don't think so Sugar."

"Right...Hungry?" They ate, practically the same as the night before. They spoke, almost in hushed tones. Heather was sure they were just being paranoid.

"You take first sleep...I'll watch."

"You sure?" Merle nodded, Heather took the bait.

Heather slept, not as peacefully as the night before but she'd definitely had worse nights. Two hours in to her sleep she was woken by Merle, shaking her shoulder gently. Looking up at him he had his finger against her lips, she nodded indicating she knew to be quiet.

"The walkers...they're here." Merle whispered.

"Is it fight or flight?"

"We're gonna have to run Sugar, don't have enough bullets to fight. There's a door out back, gonna have to go that way. Pack what ya' can." With that he was a whirlwind, packing what he could in one of the backpacks, Heather followed suite, knowing she had to be as quick and practical about this as possible.

They weren't quick enough though, Heather had just finished tugging the zips closed on her bag the Walkers had managed to break down the door. Their shuffling footsteps got closer as Heather and Merle rushed to the back door. Turning round Heather saw the Walkers had already practically filled the garage.

"Let's make this quick Sugar." Merle pushed open the door, holding it open he let Heather through first, not bothering to close it behind them they ran, having no clue exactly where they were going.

"Follow me." Merle kept running, dodging the fence and going round it they ran straight into what looked like a abandoned parking lot. All of them missing wheels, windows smashed or hoods missing. Separating the parking lot from the road was a storage container.

Without a word they both headed for the container, dodging their way through the broken cars they were chased the whole way by the few Walkers who had managed to make it out of the store. They were slowed down only slightly by trying to make their way through the graveyard of cars. They made it to storage container, its door wedged open by a tire sitting on the floor.

"Get in English I'll sort it out." Heather jumped over the tire into the container, behind her Merle had already grabbed the tire, throwing it behind him Heather was surprised he had that much strength. Pulling the door shut in a Walkers face, plunging the container into almost complete darkness. A thing strip of light could be seen coming from around the doors on either side of the space.

They could hear the Walkers, slamming themselves against the side of the container, clawing at the door. Merle had already shoved a block of wood in the small gap of the door frame, holding it in place for now.

"You good Merle?"

"Fine English...you?"

"Could be better. Shall we put something against the door? There's loads of car parts down the end of the container, got a look before we went pitch black."

Merle searched in his pockets for a while, taking out a lighter. He held it out in front of him, casting a flickering light around him. At the end of the container Heather could see a whole pile of car batteries, torn apart engines, stacks and stacks of tires. everything you'd expect from a garage. They got to work, piling the heaviest things they could against the door. Once they'd finished they both stood back, happy enough for now they were safe.

Without any light, there wasn't much to do. Heather opened her backpack, handing Merle a can of beans while she opened her own. Eating them cold they had to share a spoon. The groaning of the Walkers outside only seemed to get louder. Heather thought that, after a while, she'd be able to ignore it. She was wrong. The noise was driving her mad, Merle had fallen asleep soon after eating, leaving Heather to sit in the dark, unable to concentrate on anything but the noise outside.

The next day felt long, they Walkers were relentless. Her and Merle had nowhere to turn, not only had Walkers surrounded the container on all sides, but the other door was welded shut. They sat, depleating their already meager supplies. They shared a pack of jerky, sat against the car part mountain they'd built.

"We're gonna be okay Sugar...we'll get outta this."

"How Merle? We've got nothing. You have two bullets left."

The statement hung in the air between them. Heather hadn't meant it like that, but now that it had been said it was all she could think about. They had no way of surviving this. The more noise the Walkers made banging against the metal, the noise echoing for miles, the more Walkers it attracted. Heather hadn't felt like this since Merle found her. With him around it she'd found it easier to survive. Merle was always positive and clear thinking, always had a military plan of action in every situation. Looking at his face now, the strip of light meaning that Heather could just see him, his face didn't look confident. He was chewing the inside of his mouth, sipping on their rationed water.

It was like that for the next few days, the only way Heather could sleep was from exhaustion. They were down to their last can of food, the small amount of water they had left would maybe last time three more days, if they were careful. Merles spirits had even been dampened, he had taken to pacing up and down the container, like a caged tiger.

The days stretched on, they had been stuck in the container for five days. With no food left they were starving, they had managed to save water, but would probably be gone by the end of the day.

When Heather heard the gunshots she was sure she was dreaming. They came thick and fast, a few piercing the metal of the container. Merle threw himself over Heather as soon as they realised they were real. They heard muffled voices over the bullets. After ten minutes of continuous gunfire they could hear the men more clearly.

"Open it up boys...there must be somethin' mighty interesting in there."


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

The light flooded the container, Heather held her hand up, shielding her eyes. Scrambling to the stacked up car parts, Merle put himself in front of Heather, almost instinctively. Once her eyes did get used to the light, she finally saw what...who had cut through the door of the container.

Standing with a circular saw by his side the sunlight coming from behind him meant he was nothing but a silhouette. Merle reacted first, cautiously standing up, using a tire for support. He still put himself between Heather, stumbling towards the opening in the container. Holding up his hands, Merle was, for once in his life, was being passive.

"Good, good...keep walking." The man holding the circular saw said "You too." He finished, nodding at Heather.

Losing her balance as she got up, she followed Merle to the edge of the container, still shielding her eyes from the sunlight. As she got closer she could see the guy with the saw properly. He wasn't tall, maybe Merles height, hispanic with a shaved head, and he wasn't the only one there. Surrounding him, standing in a broken semi-circle were about 6 other men. Stepping carefully out of the container after Merle, she saw that the men were standing on piles of Walkers, blood covering almost every surface. They all stood, various weapons, most pointed straight at Heather and Merle. A sight she was now sickeningly used to.

"Now Martinez...is that a way to greet our new friends?" Martinez, the guy with the saw, just looked annoyed as his hand dropped to his side. From behind him walked the man who had spoken.

He was tall, about 6 foot 3, with floppy brown hair that was cleaner than Heather had felt in months. He wore an off white shirt, covered by a tight padded vest. Slung round his hips was a thick black belt with a gun still holstered in it. He was the only man there not pointing a weapon at them. He was handsome, Heather noted, he walked with a confidence that mimicked Thomas' when they had first met him.

"You two look like you could use some food." The man held out his arms, signaling for Heather and Merle to walk further forward. They both did, Merle still shielding Heather subconsciously.

"We don't bite." He said, smiling, one side of his mouth rising slightly more than the other. The men around him laughed, all but Martinez who still stood, glaring at Merle.

"I'm Phillip...we're from a town not far from here. Your little party peaked my men's attention."

"Town?"

"Woodbury, only 'bout 10 minutes from here." He was nodding reassuringly.

"I'm Heather...this is Merle." Merle shot her a look which she ignored, these men had saved their lives. She was finding it hard to even stand up.

"How long were you in there?" Martinez this time, he'd swapped the saw for a gun, holding it casually at his side.

"I...Four? Five days? I'm, I'm not sure." Heather stumbled over her words.

"Martinez...help then in the truck.

Merle looked like he was about to argue, grabbing his arm quickly Heather shook her head. He nodded, but looked less than happy.

Sitting in the truck, head against the window Heather watched as the scenery blurred past. A man named Paul sat between her and Merle. The gun strapped to his leg dug into Heathers, making her acutely aware of its presence.

Phillip was right, the town was close. Before Heather knew it they were pulling up to a wall. Corrugated iron leaned up against something, with concrete roads blocks keeping it in place. Tires piled up behind it. Two men were on top of it, holding guns pacing across it.

A whistle came from somewhere in the procession of cars, in answer to it the wall started to open, two men pushed at what Heather now saw was a huge gate, the cars started to move forward, driving from a debris covered road to a clean clear one. Heather turned as she heard the gates close behind her, seeing too men push the heavy things into place. Looking over to Merle he was alert, sitting bolt upright taking everything in.

The truck parked up behind the wall, someone opened the door next to Heather, it was Phillip. He had his hand held out to help her down. Taking it gladly, she carefully stepped out of the truck, leaning her weight on the man holding her hand. She smiled gratefully at him dropping her hand to her side.

Looking around herself Heather couldn't help but be in awe. She felt as if she'd gone back in time, before the apocalypse. They were at the end of a street, grass grew in the middle, luscious and green. Houses lined either side. True some windows were boarded up but ignoring that the street looked...hopeful. People had even started to grow crops, there was washing hanging from the roofs of some of the properties. She stood, amazed. Not realising that the men who had found them were looking at her, proud looks on their faces.

"How about that food?" Phillip smiled as they followed him up the road, into one of the buildings. They were followed closely by a still surly Martinez, his gun still held threateningly in his hands.

"How many people you got living here?" They were Merles first words since they'd been found.

"Seventy one!" He said as he walked them down a narrow hallway "We've been here a while." He added, leading them into the kitchen of the house. "Please...sit down."

Heather gladly took a seat, not sure how much longer she would be able to stand for. Merle however stood, still glaring around himself looking carefully at everything in the room.

"Please...Merle wasn't it? We're all survivors here. Just like you two."

"How'd ya find this place?"

"It wasn't like this when we did, cleared it, cleaned it...set up the barricades. Started either finding people or letting them find us. Got a plan for the future here...one that doesn't include Biters."

"Biters...huh we've been saying Walkers."

"Everyone seems to call them something different..."

Just then someone entered the room, the first woman Heather had seen in the town. She held a tray with two steaming bowls. A smile on her face.

Walking over to them Heather could see she was dressed plainly but cleanly. Dark blue jeans and a floral shirt tucked in, as she handed the bowl to Heather she smiled and Heather got a whiff of what smelt like soap, a forgotten luxury.

"Thank you." Heather said, taking it and examining its contents. A strong smell of onions, cabbage, Heather wasn't sure what else but her mouth watered. Grabbing the spoon she ate hungrily, trying but failing to not look like she was starving. Merle grunted a thank you to the woman who handed him the bowel, eating it still standing and not caring how ravenous he looked as he ate it.

The stew was one of the most delicious things Heather had eaten, she ate it all, scrapping at the side of the bowl. As they ate Phillip sat and watched, a smile on his face.

"Thank you." Heather said when she finished, smiling, cracking the sore skin on her lips.

"You're welcome. We've set you up a room each, if you would like we can also get you a hot bath."

Heather's eyes lit up.

"We'll get it drawn up for you...Merle?"

"I'll take a shower."

"No problem...wait here then, I'll get someone to come get you when it's all ready." He nodded at them, exiting the room with a smile on his face. The minute they were left alone Merle turned on her.

"I don't like it here Sugar."

"What?!" Heather couldn't actually believe her ears "What exactly don't you like?"

"Just...why they doin' this? Takin' us in?"

"We took Thomas in."

"Yeah and look where that got him."

"Merle!"

"I'm just sayin' English we can do this on our own, just us two."

"Yeah 'cause we were doing so well before." The words spat out of her mouth, more violently than she intended. They sat in silence until the woman from before came into the room, telling Merle to follow her and that someone would get Heather in a bit.

Five minutes later another woman came in, ushered Heather back into the street to one of the houses across the road.

"Its just up the stairs sweetie, put your clothes out the door and we'll get them cleaned for you."

"Oh...you don't have to do that." Looking down at herself she was suddenly very aware of how dirty her clothes were.

"Don't be silly, there's a clean pair in the room for you. They may be a little big, but we've got plenty spare." Nodding Heather smiled, she climbed the stairs, walking in the room the woman had indicated.

The room was small and full of steam, the bath must be hot. Stepping in front of the mirror, its glass completely steamed up. Heather didn't think she was brave enough to see her reflection yet anywhere. Knowing she wouldn't be impressed with what she saw.

Taking her clothes off gingerly, she wrapped herself in a towel, noting how prominent her hip bones were as she did so. Poking her head around the door, she carefully put her clothes outside, observing the blood stains clashing with the pink carpet. Back in the bathroom she folded the towel on the floor next to the bath. Testing the temperature with her toe it felt perfect. Lowering herself into the hot soapy water she let out a long breath she didn't realise she was holding.

Relaxing for the first time since hawkinsville, Heather couldn't believe what had happened. The feeling of being locked in that container, the darkness pressing down on them still haunted her. This fresh clean bathroom in comparison seemed alien. The water turned a murky colour almost instantly. Cringing Heather grabbed the soap on the side of the bath, roughly scrubbing at her skin, amazed at the colour change. It took forever to scrub herself clean, Heather didn't want to miss anything, taking this as her chance to get as clean as possible. Once she had done her best job, even managing to get some of the knots out of her. Getting out of the water she cringed at what colour the water was now, more dark brown than she had thought possible.

Taking the towel she patted herself down, drying herself best she could. Grabbing the clothes that had been left for her, feeling the soft fabric with her hands. Pulling on the jumper they'd left, it hung down on her frame, making her legs look skinnier than they surely were. Quickly pulling on the underwear and jeans, having to tie the belt rather than buckle it, she wrapped the towel around her hair.

Heather made her way to the mirror, wiping away the condensation left. Her blurry reflection was hardly recognisable. Hollow cheeks, chapped lips and sallow skin. Wiping away water forming beads on the mirror she walked away, unable to look anymore. Pulling on the thick socks they'd left Heather made to leave the room.

Poking her head round the doorframe the hallway was clear, padding down the stairs, the socks meaning her footsteps were practically silent, Heather stood in the hallway, unsure of what to do next.

Before she could decide someone walked out of the door to her left, startled by Heather standing in the hallway she dropped the washing basket she was holding.

"Oh...right you're supposed to go back to the building you were in earlier." She gave Heather a look she couldn't read, picked up the basket and disappeared into another room.

Walking out of the house, Heather noted how dark the street was, she had no idea what time it was and still couldn't tell. Wondering over to the house she was sure Phillip had taken them to earlier, she pushed open the door, somehow surprised that it wasn't locked. Heading to the room they had been in, Heather heard voices behind the door. One of the sounded like Merle.

Knocking on the door, unsure how to conduct herself in this situation. The voices stopped.

"Come in.." She heard Phillips voice. Pushing open the door she saw Merle and Phillip, Merle was sitting down, a drink in his hand, Heather was sure it was Whiskey.

"English!" he practically shouted "Ain't we the luckiest shits in the world for findin' this place."


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Heather had the most peaceful night sleep she'd had since the turn, they at sret her up in a small room, the bed was softer than Heather had ever slept in. She felt warm and safe, two things she'd almost forgotten. Waking up she felt as if she was dreaming, the last few days had, after all, been a living nightmare. Regrettably however she did need to get out of bed. Laying the covers as neatly as she'd found them, Heather left the room. Wandering down the hallways of the house they'd led her to last night, she poked her head round each door. The house was modestly decorated, thinking about its previous owners. There were photos of the family on the wall of the stairs. Heather studied their faces. They all shared the same nose and two of them the same deep brown eyes. Skipping down the rest of the stairs Heather quickly realised she was alone in the house. Merle had been in one of the rooms upstairs, there was no sign of him now.

Walking out of the door Heather was acutely aware of herself. There were only two women on the street, hanging out clothes in between the space of one of the houses. Heather attempted a smile, she raised one of her hands in a weak attempt at greeting. One of the women, the younger with dark brown hair was the same one Heather had scared the day before. She simply carried on with her work, barely giving Heather a second glance. The older lady though, who's greying hair was pulled into a messy bun on top of her head waved Heather over, a smile on her face. Heather made her way over, stepping carefully over the grass in the middle of the road.

"Hey there!" The woman called before Heather made it to them.

"Hi...I'm Heather."

"Rose." The lady held out her hand, Heather took it gratefully "You're supposed to be meeting The Governor over in his place." She pointed to the house they'd been taken to first on the previous night.

"The Governor?"

"Lemme guess? He told you Philip?" there was still a smile on her face that Heather couldn't help but mimic.

"Yeah...yeah he did."

"Well almost everyone here calls him The Governor...think it started off as a joke if I'm honest."

"Maybe I should go see what The Governor wants..." Heather put extra emphasis on the name, making the older lady laugh. The younger still hadn't looked up from her work.

"Anything you need, just call over. From the sounds of it you haven't had the easiest of rides."

"Ain't such thing as an easy ride in this world." The younger woman called over, head still down.

"Thank you." Heather nodded to the lady, trying her hardest to show her appreciation. Walking to the house they had first entered yesterday, Heather looked back to the two women, both of them talking in hushed voices looking over at her.

Getting to the door Heather didn't know what to do...should she knock? Before she could the door opened. There stood Philip, a smile plastered on his face.

"G'morning Heather." he ushered her into the house, shutting the door behind them.

"Morning." He had already started walking down the hall, leading Heather into the room they had eaten in yesterday.

Merle sat in the room, a plate in front of him with what looked like the remains of a good breakfast. He was nursing a cup of coffee, a smile spread across his face.

"Mornin' English, sleep well?"

"Yeah, I did. Thank you." she added, nodding at Phillip.

"Merle here has been filling me in on your journey, sounds like y'all had a tough time of it."

"Only lately. We were doin' well before those dicks showed up." Merle meant Billie and his group, Heather thought about before that. Thomas being so sick they couldn't keep going. She didn't say anything.

"Merle say's you're a born survivor."

"Oh I don't know about that, think I've been lucky so far."

They talked for hours, Phillip had someone bring in breakfast for Heather. Beans with a chunk of brown bread, it still felt warm. Phillip was interested in everything they said, the perfect audience to their tale. At the end of it he slapped his knee, a smile on his face that didn't match the harrowing story he'd just heard.

"Well we got plenty of room for you here. We're tryin' our best to be normal." Heather almost laughed, she didn't think anything could be normal again.

"Either of you got any skills?"

"She's smart, college smart." Heathers eyebrows knitted together, they hardly ever talked about that. Merle had remembered.

"Merle's ex-army. Good at shooting, better at planning."

"Planning?" Both the men turned on her.

"Yeah, he knows how to plan and execute raids. He's a good leader."

"Good to know." Phillip smiled, seemingly pleased.

"Well, how 'bout I give you the tour?"

The town wasn't big, the main street being the busiest of them all. A few smaller roads leading off of it but the rest had been blocked of. Much like the road block they'd come to when first entering the town. Heather could tell that Philip was proud, every house they walked past he knew who lived there, every person they passed would waved happily at him as he smiled. She continued to admire the town as they walked back to the main street.

"And this...will be you." Heather hadn't been listening, her head snapped back to reality at these words. Looking up at the house they'd stopped in front of a house on one of the smaller roads. It was two stories high, the windows surrounded by red brick. The front door, though slightly well worn, still showed the bright blue paint under a layer of dirt and grime.

"For us?"

"That is...if you don't mind living together." Philip gave Heather a searching look.

"No, I mean of course not. Right Merle? We're just grateful for anything."

"Course we're satyin' together. You haven't replaced me already have ya?" Heather shook her head as they went into the house. The hallway was small, peeling wallpaper lines the walls, its pattern a faded floral print. A telephone hung from the wall, unused for months. A door stood open on the left wall, Heather poked her head round it. The room was a small living room was behind it, a sofa pushed up against one wall. Brighter squares of paint where pictures used to hang lined the wall. A space that was obviously dedicated to a television was now empty in the corner of the room.

They carried on, wondering through the house. It was impressive. Everything had been cleared, Heather assumed for a situation just like this. To house new tenants. It was almost as if Phillip was their estate agent. Showing off the property. Merle wondered round, making impressed faces at whatever Phillip said.

The kitchen was as bare as the rest of the house. Phillip explained how most meals were cooked for the town as a whole and only basic food was kept in separate properties. Upstairs there were two bedrooms, one a lot smaller than the other. Merle laid claim to the larger one, automatically jumping on the bed, landing with his head on the pillow and a smile on his face.

Phillip lead them back out of the house, while he did so explaining that only two of the houses in the town had hot/cold running water. Apparently one of the houses had a generator and a water heater, they'd managed to hook it up to two houses so far, but didn't want to run it dry.

"We all pitch in here. Any job you can do, you will be." They walked to the main street, Philip led them to the house they ate in this morning. "So...we need to introduce you to the town."

The rest of the day was filled with awkward introductions. Most people were kind, a few were wary, only a couple seemed downright hostile. The woman that had previously been so unapproachable before was named Lisa. She didn't even look up from her food when Phillip introduced them. Martinez gave Heather and Merle a careful look, but shook Merles hand non the less.

They were sat down, ushered to the middle of a group and given food. Heather felt welcomed. There wasn't any talk of Walkers, of killing or running. Heather got the impression that the men were the heavy lifters of the town. The ones to do defend them. The women had more menial roles. Cooking, cleaning, Heather even overheard them talking about teaching.

Heather sat in silence as Merle regailed the town with the story of how he lost his arm. Most people looked disgusted as he recalled how the saw was too blunt to cut through the handcuffs, wincing faces surrounded them as he told the group how he seared his skin to stop any infection. A few of the men looked impressed, most of the women looked sick. Heather shook her head, knowing Merle would be loving the attention.

"So how long have you been together?"

"How long's it been Merle?"

"Bout 3 months?" Heather couldn't believe it had been that long, the time they'd spent in Oxford, the days they'd stayed in the van. They had been through three months of hell together, and survived.

Heather didn't feel like telling her story, she allowed Merle to do it instead. He gave them a shortened version, missing out things Heather was glad he did. The group which had originally consisted of about 30 people had now dwindled to only 5 (not including Merle and Heather). Philip, Martinez, a man named Howard who was quiet but had been engrossed in every word, Rose and her Daughter Tilly. As she listened to Merles dramatic retelling of their travels Heather's eyes started to droop. She was startled by Merle shaking her shoulder.

"C'mon Sugar...time for bed." They were alone, Heather wondered how long she'd been asleep.

Back in the house...their house, Merle crashed into his room, she heard the springs on his bed creak as he threw himself down.

"So," he called from his bed "what ya think?"

"I think we got lucky, real fucking lucky." he laughed, the noise of it filled the house.

"This is gonna be good Sugar, you don't have ta fight no more. No running, hiding, they've got lives here."

"So you like him then?"

"The Governor?" They both laughed, Heather had no idea where he'd heard the name. "He's a pretty boy sure. We got a house though, and he reckons I'll be good enough for a guard."

"Right, and me? Cleaner? Cook?"

"Gotta be better than survivin' ain't it?"

"Its gotta be, hasn't it?"

"Why wouldn't it eh?"

Heather sat at the top of the stairs, letting out a long breath she looked around the house, unsure of how anything had even come to this point. Whatever happened, she had Merle and for that she felt immensely lucky.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Two days into their stay, Heather got her clothes back. Looking at them now they were unrecognisable. Was the shirt she was wearing really that red? Her jeans really that washed out? Rose had given them to her, bought them to her house "special delivery". The bag that sat on top of it was light, Rose said that they hadn't taken anything from it, even the gun was still there. Its chamber empty.

"We put those photo's in the bag as well, front pocket." Rose said with a smile. "Looks like a nice church..." She left, giving a quick wave to Merle who stood behind her.

Heather dropped the washing at the bottom of the stairs. Her attention was on the bag, the bag she'd had ever since the start of the outbreak. Practically the only thing she had left on her that had made it the whole way. That and her boots. She hurriedly opened the front pocket of the bag. Grabbing the photos she stared at them, until now, they had been in her jacket pocket, completely forgotten.

Staring at the photos Heather backed into the wall, using it as support she just slid down, holding the photographs in a shaky hand. The top photo showed Thomas, he wasn't alone but Heathers eyes fell on him immediately. He towered over most of the people he was with. One of his arms was slumped over a girls shoulders, he had the smile on his face that Heather had seen the first day they met. Wide, bright it stretched all the way to his eyes, creating the creases that Heather remembered so vividly. There were about 20 people in the photograph, all stood in front of a Church. The Church.

Heather couldn't understand what she was seeing. Thomas had said he was from another town, that the only reason he was in Oxford was for a girl. She dropped the photos to the ground, unable to understand, or unwilling, what was in the image. Merle rushed forward, grabbing them from the floor and flicking through the photos, a familiar crease forming between his eyebrows.

"Wha' the fuck is this Sugar?" She couldn't answer him. Disbelief shook her as she sat against the cold radiator. Merle held out the photo, the one she had been looking at before, pointing at Thomas.

"That's Tommy...but..." even Merle couldn't wrap his head around it.

"There's gotta be an explanation." Heather wasn't willing to accept, that Thomas, who they'd traveled with for days, weeks, had been anything other than the man she'd mourned. But looking at him there, in the photo, surrounded by people, she couldn't help but make wild assumptions. He looked so happy, so at peace, so comfortable. Heather couldn't connect this image with the ones that were burned into her memory of the Church when she'd seen it. Thomas standing in the sea of bodies, a smile on his face.

Hot tears started to pout down Heathers face as the photographs once again hit the floor.

Days followed where Merle tried to talk about it, figure out what the photos meant. Heather refused, every reason her brain conjured up was ten times worse than the last. In the end Merle gave up, she was sure he burnt the photo's, Heather didn't bother to ask about them.

Despite their rocky start they worked well in Woodbury, Heather thought. Merle had definitely made a name for himself. He was always by Philips side. Working hard to show him that Dixons were made of strong stuff. While he was busy being the right hand man Heather found herself doing whatever she could to help around the town. Cooking involved a lot of chopping, apparently Heather wasn't much use for anything else in the kitchen. Cleaning made Heathers back ache and skin dry but was something that always needed doing. Teaching, however, was something Heather loved. There were only around 8 children in Woodbury, ranging from 4-15. It wasn't until they'd been there that she'd been given the responsibility of it. It was difficult, teaching Children that had no future in the world she learnt it all in.

They were hard to teach, most of the kids believed they didn't need the information Heather could supply. The ones old enough anyway, the younger ones were uncontrollable. Running and fighting, they were at least getting prepared for the outside world. Despite that, she felt like she was doing something good. They were learning, however unwillingly. And Heather was part of that.

They had a library, it was extensive for how small the town was. They had books Heather loved, ones she'd never read. She was reading now more than ever, between chores, at night, she was slowly making her way through the shelves. This was made easier by Merles absence. Since they'd arrived at Woodbury Heather had seen less and less of Merle. Whenever Heather was working, Merle was with Philip. In the evening, when Heather was at home, Merle was with Philip. Even when Heather saw Merle, he was with Philip.

One day Heather was helping with the washing, scrubbing at someone's trousers, trying to get out a particularly stubborn blood stain.

"Check it out English!" Merle barged through the door, knocking over a box of washing powder. Heather rushed to pick it up, before Lisa could do it.

Merle was brandishing his stump, which no longer sat bare at the end of his arm. Now his stump was encased in metal. Strapped onto his forearm with leather straps, it looked similar to a large baseball bat. He moved it around, swinging his arm back and forth, coming dangerously close to knocking over the pile of washing Lisa had been folding for half an hour.

"Very nice Merle..."

"Governor got me bits for it...been workin' on it a while." He looked to her, proudly. She couldn't help but smile, he looked so happy.

"Reckon I can strap a knife to it...what'dya think?" he brandished his stump at Lisa who cringed away, looking even more disgusted than before.

"I think you should go the whole way Merle, go all Edward Scissorhands." They laughed, Merle slamming his new metal stump on Heathers back, cackling louder as Lisa barged passed them out of the room.

"Still not getting along? What did ya do to her?"

"Nothing!? I've literally done nothing to her."

"Hmm...maybe she's got the hots for old Merle?"

"And why would she hate me?"

"You ain't that naive Sugar." Merle was right. Heather was sure everyone in Woodbury had made the assumption about her and Merle. As far as she was concerned it was probably for the best. If it meant Heather and Merle could share a house and Heather could be left without so much as a second glance, she was happy. Heather knew she was being selfish where Merle was concerned. For Heather though, staying with Merle was her only option. She knew, without him she wasn't strong enough to survive.

They were slowly drifting apart though, Merle spent more and more days away from the house, away from Woodbury entirely. He was constantly out on raids, whole weeks would go by and Heather would hardly see him. She did her best to fade into the background of Woodbury, keep quiet and work hard. She had made a fast friend in Rose, and her Daughter Tilly, who was Heathers favorite student by far. If Heather wasn't working, she was spending time with Rose. She was a kind, positive woman who was loved by everyone in the town. Rose made Heather feel strong.

Living in Woodbury, Heather could almost completely forget about Walkers. She hadn't so much as even heard one since she'd arrived. Merle came back with stories of hordes they'd taken down, of kills he was proud of. All the fighting was a memory Heather was almost forgetting, making her feel useless and ridiculously unprepared if anything did happen.

Heather and Merle almost came to blows one night, he had been away for three days, he'd been to a town with a medical school. Macon about two hours away in the "normal" world. Merle had come back full of tall tales as always. He and Martinez had managed to get locked in a classroom, once they'd got out they took the wrong hallway, running into at least 15 walkers. They came so close to losing, but Melre used a fire extinguisher, spraying them before just using it to whack them over the head with.

All of that, to get more medicine to help the people in the town. That's what really got to Heather. Not the fact that Merle was out, experiencing life while Heather was stuck in the town. Not that everyone in Woodbury treated Merle like a hero. Merle was helping people survive, while Heather was washing clothes and chopping carrots.

"Ya should be grateful Sugar, you ain't gotta be out there anymore."

"I feel useless, most days there's more of us in there washing than there is clothes."

"What 'bout teachin'? You was gonna do it anyways?" Merles mouth was set in a grim line, at least he was taking her seriously.

"These kids don't need to learn the main themes in The fucking Equist Merle. They need to be taught how to survive. You'd be better off teaching them. I'm useless here. Fucking useless. I just do the same things day in day out. Most days, I don't do a thing. You're out there risking your life. I need to help. I can't just sit pretty."

"You wanna go out there, and get killed?"

"No Merle. I want to do something. What's the point in just surviving?"

"You ain't just survivin' English." He'd got up from his chair, approaching Heather slowly "You're livin' here. You're alive, in a town with people who are as well. There's a future here. You're better than just killin' walkers."

"What if I want to kill Walkers? What if the new world isn't about getting back what we used to have but about embracing the new. Walkers aren't just gonna go away Merle. Every horde you kill there's just gonna be another one. Bigger and more vicious. I want to help in the new world, not keep dragging up the old one."

"What exactly did ya want me to do 'bout it Sugar?"

"I...I just thought."

"You just thought what? That I'd be able to go to Phillip and put you're case forward. Tell him how strong ya' are even though ya' don't look it. Ya' beein' ungratefull Heather."

Heather nodded, swallowing the tears that threatened to fall down her face.

"Ungrateful...fine Merle. I'll stay here and play housewife. You go out and earn a living."

They didn't speak over the next few days. Heather purposefully avoided him, doing exactly what he wanted her to do. Working hard in the town, staying safe.

Heather was sat with Rose, eating the meal she'd helped cook when Phillip approached her.

"Ya' mind if I take this pretty little lady for a bit Rosie? I promise I'll bring her back." Rose smiled and carried on talking to Tilly.

"How are ya' Heather? Keeping well?"

"I am, thanks to you and the town."

"Good...good." They walked in silence for a while, away from the crowd of people eating dinner, towards the room Heather and Merle had eaten in on their first night in Woodbury.

"Merle says you're bored."

"I..." Heather was stumped. Coming from Phillip, Heather suddenly felt unbelievably ungrateful.

"I understand. Not all women are happy just doing housework." He laughed, Heather didn't, "If you want to go out with Merle, I ain't gonna stop ya. Merle argued your corner well. Say's you're more than just washin' sheets."

"I want to help. There's more than enough willing to cook and clean. Most days I'm just re-folding clothes just for something to do."

"You don't have to prove yourself. Not to me anyway. Martinez...different story." He smiled at Heather, his dark hair falling into his eyes as he looked down at her.

"Tomorrow, ya to go out with him. He'll wanna see what you can do."

"Thank you." Heather felt awkward, thanking him when he had no real say in what she did or didn't do.

"No need ta' thank me, thank you for bein' willing to put your life on the line."


End file.
